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Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arcliive 

in  2007  witli  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littp://www.arcliive.org/details/adequacyofjudaisOOeneliala 


B)!  the  same  Author: 
Aspects  of  the  Bible 
The  Jewish  Life 
The  Synagogue  in  Modem  Life 
The  Varied  Beauty  of  the  Psalms 
The  Effects  of  Religion 
The  Faith  of  Israel 
The  Allied  Countries  and  the  Jews 
The  War  and  the  Bible 
A  Jewish  View  of  Jesus 


The  Adequacy  of 
Judaism 


StacH 
Annex 

r 

H.  G.  Endow  ;  ^ 

0^ 


Bloch  Publishing  Company 

New  York 

1920 


To 


Mr.  Samuel  Qrahfelder 

True  friend  and  unwearying 
doer  of  good 


2096832 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  The  Modern  Discontent  with  Juda- 
ism          9 

II.  Need  Jews  Become  Christians?        .  17 

III.  Need  Jews  Become  Atheists.''     .      .  29 

IV.  Need  Jews  Become  Christian  Scien- 
tists.''      43 

V.  Need    Jews    Become    Ethical    Cul- 

turists.'' 55 

VI.  Need  Jews  Become  Unitarians.?       .  67 

VII.  Why  Shall  Jews  Remain  Jews?  .      .  81 


The   Adequacy  of  Judaism 


THE  MODERN  DISCONTENT 
WITH    JUDAISM 

"Have  I  been  a  wilderness  to  Israel,  or 
a  land  of  deep  darkness?  Wherefore  say 
My  people:  We  are  broken  loose,  we  will 
come  no  more  unto  Thee?" — Jeremiah  2, 
31. 

IN  various  circles  nowadays  we  find  dis- 
content with  Judaism.  It  shows  itself 
either  in  indifference  or  hostility  to  our 
ancestral  religion,  or  in  actual  defection 
from  it.  At  first  blush,  we  are  apt  to 
regard  it  as  an  entirely  new  occurrence 
in  Israel;  but  the  student  of  history 
knows  better.  Such  discontent  has  ap- 
peared among  us,  frequently,  from  earliest 
times.  Moses  knew  it;  Samuel  knew  it; 
and  so  did  every  subsequent  prophet. 

Perhaps  the  most  poignant  reference  to 
such  discontent  and  desertion  we  find  in 
the  pages  of  Jeremiah.    And  to  that  great 

9 


10      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

prophet  the  conduct  of  his  people  seemed 
the  more  deplorable  because  he  realized  how 
much  it  was  due  to  the  people's  lack  of  un- 
derstanding and  appreciation  of  the  faith 
they  had  inherited.  Because  they  did  not 
know  the  contents  of  their  rehgion,  they 
went  astray,  roaming  about  in  quest  of 
other  religions.  "^Vhy  do  you  contend  with 
Me?  saith  the  Lord.  O  generation,  see  ye 
the  word  of  the  Lord!  Have  I  been  a  wil- 
derness to  Israel,  or  a  land  of  deep  dark- 
ness? Wherefore  say  My  people.  We  are 
broken  loose,  we  will  come  no  more  unto 
Thee?" 

These  questions  might  well  be  addressed 
literally  to  the  Jewish  men  and  women  of 
our  own  generation,  who  neglect  their  re- 
ligion because  they  are  not  aware  of  its 
beauty  and  brightness.  For  that  is  just  the 
reason  why  so  many  are  either  averse  or 
lukewarm  to  their  ancestral  religion. 

Of  course,  among  those  who  neglect 
Judaism,  or  abandon  it,  there  are  people 
impelled  by  other  motives,  too.  We  know 
that  some  drift  away  because  they  are  too 
materialistic,  too  earthy,  to  care  for  anj'^- 


DISCONTENT   WITH   JUDAISM       11 

thing  of  a  spiritual  character.  Others  are 
breaking  away  because  of  a  foolish  snob- 
bishness, which  makes  them  think  that  they 
can  find  greater  happiness  or  satisfaction  in 
churches  considered  more  fashionable  than 
the  Synagogue.  One  even  hears  of  people 
who  have  changed  their  religion,  strange 
though  it  may  seem,  because  of  some  per- 
sonal slight  or  grievance. 

But  apart  from  such,  there  are  a  great 
many  who  have  grown  apathetic  or  antag- 
onistic to  Judaism  because  of  dissatisfaction, 
spiritual  dissatisfaction  —  and  their  condi- 
tion is  the  more  to  be  deplored  because  it  is 
founded  on  error  and  lack  of  knowledge. 
They  have  been  led  to  think  that  Judaism 
is  spiritually  poor,  that  it  is  incompatible 
with  the  highest  social  and  ethical  demands 
of  the  present,  that  it  is  inadequate  to  the 
spiritual  needs  of  the  age.  To  them  we 
might  well  address  the  words  of  the  Lord 
in  Jeremiah's  days:  "O  generation,  see  ye 
the  word  of  the  Lord!  Have  I  been  a  wil- 
derness to  Israel  or  a  land  of  thick  darkness? 
Wherefore  say  My  people.  We  have  broken 
loose,  we  will  come  no  more  unto  Thee?" 


12      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

In  effect,  the  Lord  certainly  has  not  been 
a  wilderness  to  Israel,  nor  a  land  of  thick 
darkness.  Even  those  who  are  most  dis- 
satisfied with  Judaism  at  present,  will  not 
deny  that  Judaism  has  meant  a  great  deal 
to  the  world.  The  history  of  the  Jewish 
people  is  the  most  wonderful  of  all  histories. 
That  is  conceded  by  all.  The  duration,  the 
heroism,  the  martyrdom  of  the  Jew  is  the 
marvel  of  mankind.  They  have  gained  the 
tribute  of  admiration  even  from  our  foes. 
No  one  denies  that  the  Jew  has  made  valu- 
able contributions  to  civilization.  Never- 
theless, it  is  true  that  the  chief  glory  of 
Jewish  history  has  come  from  Israel's  re- 
ligion, and  it  is  by  his  religious  teaching  and 
ideahsm  that  the  Jew  has  made  his  most 
valuable  addition  to  the  civiHzation  of  man- 
kind. It  matters  not  how  much  that  ideal- 
ism may  have  remained  unrealized,  the  very 
fact  that  the  world  has  accepted  it,  and  made 
it  the  foundation  of  its  foremost  rehgions, 
constitutes  the  greatest  glory  of  Jewish 
history. 

No  one,  therefore,  can  say  that  Judaism 
has  meant  nothing  to  the  Jew  in  the  past. 


DISCONTENT   WITH   JUDAISM       18 

Nor  can  one  forget  that  it  is  Judaism  that 
has  formed  the  chief  support  of  the  Jew 
himself,  making  his  Hfe  spiritually  rich  and 
strong  throughout  the  centuries  of  persecu- 
tion, and  rendering  him  both  ethically  and 
religiously  superior  to  his  environment  dur- 
ing the  ages  of  superstitition  and  idolatry. 
But  does  not  the  same  thing  hold  good 
today?  Those  who  will  take  the  trouble 
really  to  examine  Judaism  will  have  to  ad- 
mit that  today,  no  less  than  before,  Judaism 
not  only  is  equal  to  all  the  spiritual  needs 
and  ethical  demands  of  the  Jew,  but  forms 
the  foundation  of  what  true  and  durable  re- 
ligiousness there  is  in  the  world  at  large. 
Every  religion,  in  these  days  of  ours,  is 
called  upon  to  examine  and  to  revise  its  con- 
tents :  Judaism  has  nothing  to  fear  from  the 
new  age  as  far  as  its  own  principles  and 
precepts  are  concerned,  if  we  consider  what 
men  today  regard  as  the  requisites  of  a 
religion. 

For  one  thing,  people  today  require  a 
religion  that  shall  combine  two  qualities — 
reasonableness   and   spirituality.      No   one 


14.      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

wants  a  religion  which  runs  counter  to  rea- 
son. On  the  other  hand,  no  one  wants  a 
religion  which  ignores  the  heart,  or  the 
spirit.  "Religion  is  the  poetry  of  the  heart,'* 
a  French  writer  has  said.  An  arid  rational- 
ism is  quite  as  offensive  to  modern  man  as 
an  irrational  superstition. 

This  combination  of  qualities  is  just 
what  Judaism  possesses.  The  heart  and 
the  mind — reason  and  spirit — have  always 
played  an  equally  important  part  in  its  do- 
main. From  the  very  first,  and  thi'oughout 
its  history,  Judaism  has  stood  for  the  culti- 
vation of  the  mind  as  part  of  reHgious  duty. 
It  has  not  only  sanctioned  but  required  the 
application  of  reason  to  the  perception  of 
the  religious  mysteries  and  the  pursuit  of 
the  religious  life.  No  religion  has  ever  been 
so  clearly  opposed  to  superstition  as  Juda- 
ism. On  the  other  hand,  the  teachers  of 
Judaism  have  known  and  taught  that  the 
greatest  thing  in  the  understanding  and  ful- 
filment of  religion  is  the  heart — or  the  spirit. 
If  today  we  find  Jewish  men  and  women 
who  think  that  they  cannot  cling  to  the  re- 
ligion of  their  fathers  because  they  want  a 


DISCONTENT  WITH   JUDAISM       15 

religion  compatible  with  culture  and  spiritu- 
ality— if  it  is  because  they  miss  this  quality 
in  Judaism  that  they  are  dissatisfied  with 
it — then,  I  say,  they  wrong  Judaism.  Philo 
certainly  was  a  man  both  cultured  and  spir- 
itual; so  was  Moses  Maimonides ;  so  was 
Moses  Mendelssohn;  so  are  many  men  and 
women  of  our  own  time  whom  one  might 
name.  And  they  have  found  Judaism 
adequate. 

No  less  do  those  wrong  Judaism  who 
leave  it  alone  because  they  are  interested  in 
the  social  questions  of  the  age.  Such  people 
we  find  in  all  classes,but  particularly  among 
the  working  classes.  Because  they  are  con- 
cerned with  the  improvement  of  the  common 
lot,  they  think  they  must  go  to  cults  which 
deal  with  such  questions  more  earnestly  than 
Judaism.  But  is  there  any  excuse  for  such 
a  course?  Is  it  not  true  that  no  religion  ever 
laid  such  stress  on  the  importance  of  social 
justice  as  Judaism?  Were  not  the  Prophets 
the  greatest  champions  of  the  poor  and  the 
oppressed  that  ever  lived?  Were  not  Moses 
and  Elijah  and  Amos  the  most  uncompro- 


16      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

mising  fighters  for  social  righteousness  the 
world  ever  knew?  Is  it  mere  accident  that 
so  many  of  the  foremost  social  reformers 
have  sprung  from  Israel,  or  is  it  not  rather 
due  to  the  passion  for  the  common  good 
with  which  Judaism  has  filled  its  devotees? 
"Israel,"  says  Renan,  "first  gave  form  to 
the  cry  of  the  people,  to  the  plaint  of  the 
poor,  to  the  obstinate  demand  of  those  who 
hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness."  If 
any  one  turns  his  back  upon  Judaism  be- 
cause of  concern  for  the  common  good,  he 
shows  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  contents  and 
the  commission  of  his  religion. 

It  is  such  lack  of  appreciation  of  Judaism 
that  is  at  the  basis  of  most  of  the  modern 
discontent  with  it. 

This  condition  it  is  our  duty  to  try  to 
change.  As  friends  of  Judaism,  we  should 
seek  to  spread  knowledge  of  it  among  our 
fellowmen,  and  especially  among  oui'  own. 

Let  us  realize  the  riches  and  truth  of 
Judaism;  then  will  discontent  give  way  to 
love  and  fidelitv. 


II 

NEED    JEWS    BECOME 
CHRISTIANS? 

"Why  gaddest  thou  about  so  much  to 
change  thy  ways?" — Jeremiah  2,  36, 

THE  discussion  of  the  question  of 
whether  Jews  need  become  Christians, 
I  do  not  mean  to  take  up  in  a  spirit 
of  controversy  or  strife.  Rather  do  I  wish 
to  approach  it  in  the  spirit  of  Abraham's 
words  to  Lot,  recorded  in  the  old  story. 
"Let  there  be  no  strife,"  said  the  Patriarch, 
"between  you  and  me,  between  thy  shep- 
herds and  my  shepherds,  for  we  are  men 
and  brothers."  Similarly,  Jew  and  Chris- 
tian may  well  seek  to  avoid  quarrel  and 
strife.  There  are  many  things  in  which 
Judaism  and  Christianity  might  work  to- 
gether, for  the  common  good.  And  it  is  for- 
tunate that  there  are  numerous  instances  of 
the  shepherds  of  both  rehgious  groups  work- 
ing together  in  a  spirit  of  manly  fellowship. 

17 


18      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

Yet,  that  does  not  exempt  the  Jew  from  the 
duty  to  come  to  the  defense  of  his  own  sa- 
cred cause  when  its  work  and  future  are 
imperilled. 

The  observer  of  Jewish  life  cannot  fail  to 
see  what  a  large  number  of  Jewish  people 
have  lately  drifted  into  Christian  churches. 
There  are  those  who  either  ignore  this  phe- 
nomenon or  attach  no  importance  to  it.  But 
no  true  lover  of  the  Jewish  people  and  its 
religion  will  adopt  such  an  attitude.  Better 
far  to  face  the  fact,  and  to  see  what  can  be 
done. 

The  fact,  however,  is  that  in  one  form  or 
another  Judaism  has  lost  a  considerable 
number  of  its  adherents,  or  of  those  born 
into  its  fold.  A  large  number  of  Jews  in 
recent  years  have  been  lost  to  Judaism  either 
because  they  have  joined  outright  Christian 
churches,  or  because  they  have  joined  or- 
ganizations on  the  borderland  between  Ju- 
daism and  Christianity  and  forming  a  tran- 
sition to  Christianity,  or  because  they  are 
living  under  the  impression  that  Christianity 
is  better  than  Judaism,  and  thus  are  likely 


NEED  JEWS  BECOME  CHRISTIANS?     19 

to  become  Christians  eventually.  Besides, 
it  is  purblind  to  overlook  the  earnest  and 
widespread  effort  put  forth  by  Christian 
groups  to  evangelize  the  Jew;  in  other 
words,  to  convert  Jews  to  Christianity. 
Right  here  in  New  York  there  are  societies 
actively  engaged  in  such  work,  and  many 
Christian  missionary  agencies  are  united  in 
the  endeavor  to  win  Jews,  and  particularly 
Jewish  young  people,  over  to  the  Christian 
faith. 

Is  it  not  time  to  face  these  conditions 
squarely?  Is  it  not  our  duty,  at  least,  to 
try  to  answer  the  question  as  to  whether 
Jews  have  any  good  reason  for  quitting 
Judaism  in  favor  of  the  Christian  religion? 
I  think  it  is.  "It  is  time  to  act  for  the  Lord, 
when  so  many  are  forsaking  the  Divine 
Law." 

The  reason  chiefly  given  by  those  who 
would  have  the  Jew  turn  Christian,  is  that 
thus  only  can  one  hope  for  salvation.  Time 
was  when  such  an  affirmation  was  considered 
a  good  argument.  The  word  salvation  had 
a  cryptic  meaning  which,  though  not  under- 


20      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

stood,  was  deemed  sufficient.  It  overawed 
the  faithful — the  person  of  rehgious  bent. 
But  is  the  use  of  the  word  salvation  today 
enough  to  convince  anybody?  Today  we 
like  to  analyze  the  terms  we  use,  whether 
the  terms  be  spiritual  or  social,  political  or 
rehgious.  The  trouble  is  that  often  we 
employ  terms  we  really  do  not  understand. 
Today  we  seek  clarity.  If  people  knew 
better  the  meaning  of  the  words  they  use,  a 
great  deal  of  the  present-day  confusion  and 
misunderstanding  would  disappear. 

What,  then,  is  meant  by  salvation?  If  it 
means  salvation  of  the  soul  in  the  hereafter, 
no  sensible  person  will  agree  that  one  must 
leave  one's  own  inherited  religion  or  forfeit 
one's  soul  in  the  hereafter.  Why  should  one 
have  to  become  a  Christian  in  order  to  safe- 
guard one's  happiness  after  one's  death? 
Why  should  one  assume  that  all  those  out- 
side the  Christian  churches  have  any  less 
chance  beyond  the  tomb  than  the  followers 
of  Christianity?  The  hereafter  is  shrouded 
in  mystery  for  all  of  us — for  the  Christian 
as  much  as  for  the  non-Christian — and  it  is 
presumptuous  for  any  one  to  affirm  that  we 


NEED  JEWS  BECOME  CHRISTIANS?     21 

must  accept  his  creed  in  order  to  secure  our 
share  in  the  world  to  come.  Certainly,  the 
ancient  rabbis  were  more  generous  and  more 
religious  when  they  affirmed  that  the  right- 
eous of  all  nations  shall  have  a  share  in  the 
world  to  come.  Modern  men,  who  do  their 
own  thinking,  will  surely  prefer  such  a  doc- 
trine and  hope  to  that  of  the  religious  re- 
strictionists  who  would  have  us  beheve  that 
unless  one  turns  Christian,  one  may  not  hope 
to  be  saved  in  the  hereafter. 

Salvation,  however,  may  mean  another 
thing.  It  may  signify  spiritual  satisfaction 
and  peace  in  this  world,  rather  than  bliss 
later  on.  Indeed,  this  sort  of  spiritual  satis- 
faction is  sought  by  all  those  who  are  con- 
scious of  a  soul,  and  to  whom  the  soul  is  the 
most  important  possession.  Such  people 
may  well  inquire  whether,  being  Jews,  they 
can  secure  deeper  spiritual  satisfaction  and 
serenity  by  abandoning  Judaism  and  adopt- 
ing the  religion  of  the  Christian  world. 

Naturally,  this  would  be  the  case  if  Chris- 
tianity were  superior  to  Judaism  as  a  re- 
ligious doctrine  and  system.  But  is  it  su- 
perior?    I  can  conceive  that  one  born  into 


22      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

Christianity  might  say  yes,  inspired  by 
inheritance  and  environment.  But  no 
thoughtful  Jew  could  possibly  answer  this 
question  in  the  affirmative,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  as  a  religion  Judaism  has  all 
the  advantages  and  none  of  the  disadvan- 
tages of  traditional  Christianity. 

Is  not  what  is  going  on  under  our  own 
eyes  instructive?  Every  student  of  the 
Christian  religion  knows  that  when  it  first 
came  into  being  it  derived  some  things 
from  Judaism  and  other  things  from  Pa- 
ganism, using  the  word  Paganism  not  in 
an  invidious  sense,  but  as  representing  the 
thought  and  life  of  ancient  Greece  and 
Rome.  Early  Christianity  formed  a  coal- 
escence of  Jewish  and  non-Jewish  teach- 
ings, ideals,  and  ceremonies.  What  we 
witness  today,  however,  is  a  gradual  elimi- 
nation from  Christianity  of  its  non-Jewish 
elements  and  concentration  upon  those  parts 
that  came  to  it  from  Judaism.  Faith  in 
God,  insistence  on  righteousness,  the  inter- 
pretation of  religion  in  terms  of  justice  and 
service — these  are  the  notes  struck  today 


NEED  JEWS  BECOME  CHRISTIANS?     23 

with  increasing  force  and  clarity  as  consti- 
tuting true  Christianity. 

On  all  hands,  we  witness  efforts  to  repre- 
sent Christianity  as  a  religion  standing  for 
such  concepts  and  commands.  Those  dog- 
mas which  once  upon  a  time  formed  the 
gravamen  of  Christian  argument,  one  hard- 
ly meets  with  in  public  discussion  or  prac- 
tical propaganda.  They  have  been  either 
abandoned  or  relegated  to  the  background. 
But  the  elements  which  are  accentuated  to- 
day are  the  very  ones  which  Christianity 
inherited  from  Judaism.  It  is  Judaism  that 
taught  that  faith  and  service  were  the  all-in- 
all  of  religion,  and  Judaism  has  the  advan- 
tage of  never  having  lent  itself  to  those  other 
concepts  which  have  proved  a  millstone 
about  the  neck  of  Religion,  and  which  now 
are  being  rejected. 

Why,  then,  should  any  Jew  today  leave 
his  own  religion  in  favor  of  Christianity? 
How  could  he  possibly  hope  to  find  it  more 
productive  of  spiritual  contentment  and 
bhss? 

I  know  there  are  those  who  are  fascinated 


24      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

by  the  figure  of  Jesus.  They  are  fascinated 
by  his  life  and  teachings — by  his  idealism 
and  martyrdom.  But  that  surely  is  no  rea- 
son for  abandoning  Judaism.  For,  Jesus, 
as  the  student  knows,  was  a  Jew,  from  birth 
to  death,  and  whatever  he  taught  was  a  re- 
flection of  the  Jewish  Scriptures  or  of  his 
own  Jewish  soul.  This  is  a  truth  recognized 
not  only  by  the  Jewish  student,  but  admitted 
more  and  more  by  Christian  students  as 
well.  Only  the  other  day  I  received  from 
abroad  a  new  hfe  of  Jesus,  by  Professor 
Wernle,  of  the  University  of  Bale,  one  of 
the  leading  writers  on  the  subject.  His  very 
first  sentence  is  a  declaration  that  Jesus  was 
a  Jew  and  a  product  in  both  flesh  and  spirit 
of  the  Jewish  people.  Whoever  does  not 
like  the  fact,  says  Professor  Wernle,  or  is 
prone  to  ignore  it,  need  but  open  the  Gos- 
pels and  read  them  with  open  eyes. 

As  far  as  the  religious  and  ethical  teach- 
ings of  Jesus  are  concerned,  there  is  nothing 
in  them  but  a  confirmation  of  Jewish  ideal- 
ism, and  no  one  needs  turn  Christian  in 
order  to  understand  them  or  to  reiterate 
them.      On   the   contrary,    it    were    better 


NEED  JEWS  BECOME  CHRISTIANS?     25 

far  Christians  turned  Jews — they  might  be 
more  likely  then  to  penetrate  the  spirit  of 
Jesus's  teaching  and  seek  to  put  it  into 
effect  in  so-called  Christian  civilization. 

Unfortunately,  there  are  some  who  imag- 
ine they  can  ingratiate  themselves  with  the 
world,  or  rise  on  the  social  ladder,  by  turn- 
ing Christian.  In  reahty,  that  is  seldom  the 
reward  of  apostasy.  In  his  heart  of  hearts, 
the  sincere  Christian  detests  conversion  to 
his  church  for  worldly  ends  or  for  the  sake 
of  social  recognition.  Such  traffic  in  convic- 
tions is  an  insult  to  every  true  believer,  and 
while  a  Christian  may  want  to  make  con- 
verts, he  detests  any  one  who  comes  over 
to  his  denomination  for  the  gratification  of 
social  vanity.  Instances  have  been  known 
where  Jews  who  have  joined  fashionable 
churches  in  order  to  secure  social  honors, 
have  been  duly  snubbed  by  their  new  co- 
rehgionists — even  changes  of  name  and  of 
nose  proved  futile.  Besides,  as  far  as  prej- 
udice is  concerned,  baptism  is  no  cure.  In 
the  middle  ages  there  was  a  certain  pope 
whose  ancestors,  several  generations  back. 


26      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

had  been  Jews.  That  pope  met  with  certain 
opposition,  and  his  antagonists  kept  on  re- 
ferring to  him  as  the  Jew  pope.  One  does 
not  escape  prejudice  by  apostasy.  It  only 
aggravates  the  bigot.  Zanah  Yisrael  tobh 
oyehh  yirdepho — says  the  Prophet:  "When 
Israel  forsakes  the  good — which,  say  the 
rabbis,  means  the  Torah,  his  faith — the  foe 
pursues  him  the  more."  One  is  more  hkely 
to  gain  respect — even  the  respect  of  bigots 
— by  a  manly  loyalty  to  one's  faith. 

When  Lord  Reading  was  British  Am- 
bassador to  this  country,  I  am  told,  he  was 
invited  by  a  large  commercial  organization 
of  this  city  as  a  guest  of  honor  to  one  of  its 
functions.  The  affair  happened  to  fall  on 
a  Saturday,  and  Lord  Reading  declined  the 
invitation  because  it  was  on  a  Saturday,  his 
Sabbath,  saying  he  was  not  in  the  habit  of 
attending  social  functions  on  the  Sabbath. 
Down  in  Kentucky  I  had  a  friend,  Mr. 
Lewis  N.  Dembitz,  who  was  both  a  cele- 
brated lawyer  and  great  scholar.  Mr.  Dem- 
bitz was  an  observant  Jew.  He  never 
attended  court  on  Saturday,  and  that  fact 
became  so  well  known,  and  was  treated  with 


NEED  JEWS  BECOME  CHRISTIANS?     27 

such  respect,  that  whenever  a  case  in  which 
Mr.  Dembitz  was  to  appear  was  set  for  a 
Saturday  it  was  postponed  by  the  court  to 
some  other  day. 

Is  not  such  manly  conduct  more  likely  to 
down  prejudice  than  apostasy? 

Besides,  how  can  one  possibly  hope  to 
gain  spiritual  satisfaction  and  peace  by  be- 
traying one's  own  soul?  It  is  the  great 
teacher  of  Christianity  who  is  said  to  have 
asked  the  question,  What  shall  it  profit  a 
man  to  gain  the  whole  world  if  he  lose  his 
soul? 

What  we  need  is  a  deeper  appreciation  of 
our  own  religious  heritage  and  a  greater 
regard  for  the  things  of  the  spirit.  If  we 
acquire  that,  we  shall  realize  that  we  need 
not  go  outside  our  own  faith — that  we  need 
not  roam  about  changing  our  ways — in  order 
to  find  spiritual  contentment  and  peace. 

Yet,  have  we  done  our  full  duty  by  merely 
answering  the  question  we  have  put,  and 
proving  that  there  is  no  good  reason  for 
Jews  becoming  Christians? 

No!    We  have   another  duty:   it  is   our 


28      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

duty  to  do  something  to  counteract  the 
efforts  of  those  who  are  taking  Jewish  men 
and  women  away  from  us.  It  is  our  duty 
to  try  to  save  Jews  from  the  perils  of  apos- 
tasy surrounding  them.  We  should  try  to 
multiply  centres  of  Jewish  education  and 
agencies  of  Jewish  propaganda.  That  is 
where  the  duty  of  the  modern  Synagogue 
lies,  and  particularly  in  America,  which  at 
present  forms  the  great  hope  of  Judaism, 
since  the  centres  of  Jews  in  the  Old  World 
have  been  destroyed  or  impoverished  by  the 
war,  and  more  particularly  in  Xew  York, 
where  Jews  are  most  numerous  and  the  dis- 
integrating influences  most  powerful. 

Let  us  emulate  the  missionary  zeal  of  our 
Christian  neighbors.  Let  us  work  in  behalf 
of  Judaism,  and  maybe  we  shall  recover  for 
it  in  some  measure  the  love  and  the  loyalty 
of  our  people! 


Ill 

NEED  JEWS  BECOME  ATHEISTS? 

"By  the  Lord  shall  all  the  seed  of  Israel 
be  justified,  and  shall  glory." — Isaiah, 
45,  25. 

IT  is  one  of  the  paradoxes  of  modern  life 
to  find  so  many  Jews  among  the  atheists. 
Religion  has  been  of  the  very  essence  of 
Jewish  existence.  The  Jews  have  been  called 
the  Chosen  People,  and  they  have  been  in- 
timately associated  with  the  God  idea  and 
with  the  Divine  Name.  "The  Holy  One 
and  Israel  are  one,"  said  an  ancient  rabbi. 
Moreover,  it  is  from  the  Jew  that  the  world 
has  gotten  both  its  God  and  its  Bible. 
Therefore,  it  is  very  strange  to  find  so 
many  Jewish  men  and  women  at  present 
who  either  declare  themselves  openly  as 
atheists,  or  live  a  life  which  stamps  them 
as  such. 

Nevertheless,  there  are  people  who  con- 
sider this  of  no  moment.    What  difference 

29 


30      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

does  it  make,  they  ask,  whether  a  Jew  is  an 
atheist  or  no?  A  Jew  is  a  Jew  for  all  that! 
If  a  man  has  a  Jewish  heart,  or  a  Jewish 
soul,  it  is  enough.  These,  however,  are 
empty  phrases. 

The  fact  is  that  it  matters  a  great  deal 
whether  Jews  continue  to  hold  on  to  the 
God-idea  and  the  God-beHef,  or  do  not.  It 
is  the  Jew's  religion  that  has  formed  the 
justification  of  his  existence  and  the  glory 
of  his  life  throughout  the  ages,  and  it  is  a 
demonstrable  fact  that  according  as  he  has 
abandoned  his  old  faith,  the  Jew  has  been 
shorn  of  much  of  his  traditional  splendor. 

This  is  not  to  say  that  there  are  not  ex- 
ceptions. There  are.  Some  Jews  have 
drifted  away  from  their  old  religion,  and 
yet  have  retained  fine  ethical  and  spiritual 
qualities.  In  some  cases  they  have  even 
given  new  expression  and  exemplification  to 
their  ancestral  heritage.  But  as  far  as  the 
majority  are  concerned,  abandonment  of 
their  religion  has  been  followed  by  moral 
and  spiritual  deterioration.  If  we  witness 
today  a  wide-spread  disintegration  of  Jew- 
ish life,   if   we  witness  large  numbers   of 


NEED    JEWS    BECOME    ATHEISTS?     31 

Jewish  people  living  on  a  low  moral  plane, 
if  we  witness  an  increase  of  materialism 
among  us — in  the  sense  not  merely  of  wor- 
ship of  worldly  goods  but  of  deadness  and 
apathy  to  things  of  the  spirit — it  is  due  to 
nothing  so  much  as  to  dechne  of  genuine 
religion  among  us  and  to  rehnquishment  of 
what  forms  the  foundation  of  true  religion 
— belief  and  faith  in  God. 

Indeed,  this  is  one  point  made  by  Chris- 
tian missionaries  in  defense  of  their  work 
among  Jews.  We  do  not  mean,  they  say, 
to  convert  any  Jews  who  are  loyal  to  their 
God  and  true  to  their  own  religion :  our  aim 
is  to  win  those  who  have  abandoned  their 
own  religion,  and  who  have  become  atheists 
or  believers  in  nothing — and  of  such  there 
are  a  great  many.  Such,  they  add,  are  a 
drawback,  a  danger,  to  American  hfe. 

"^Vhen  we  hear  such  arguments,  we  grow 
indignant.  We  resent  missionaries  of  other 
faiths  trying  to  make  converts  in  our  midst. 
Yet,  the  better  course  is  to  face  the  truth, 
and  to  admit  that  the  encroachment  of  irre- 
ligion  upon  our  territory  is  a  deplorable 
condition  and  a  menace  to  our  life  and  repu- 


32      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

tation.  It  is  a  fine  pass  we  have  come  to 
when  it  is  said — as,  alas,  it  is  said — that 
Jews  are  the  least  responsive  to  the  religious 
appeal,  that  to  speak  to  Jewish  people  in 
the  name  or  in  behalf  of  God,  is  to  address 
deaf  ears.  It  is  certainly  proper,  under  such 
circumstances,  to  seek  to  answer  the  ques- 
tion whether  there  is  any  ground  for  Jews 
abandoning  their  traditional  attitude  to  re- 
ligion and  becoming  atheists. 

Let  us  look  at  the  history  of  the  Jew, 
first  of  all. 

Does  our  history  justify  us  in  becoming 
atheists? 

It  is  said  that  Frederick  the  Great  once 
asked  a  certain  philosopher  for  proof  of  the 
existence  of  Divine  Providence  and  that  the 
philosopher  referred  him  to  the  continued 
existence  of  the  Jew.  If  there  were  no 
Providence,  he  said,  the  Jews  would  not  have 
perdured.  Similarly,  Judah  Ha-Levi,  in 
his  classic  work  on  Jewish  philosophy,  em- 
ploys the  history  of  the  Jew  as  first  proof 
of  Divinity.  "WTien  the  King  of  the  Kha- 
zars,  in  his  quest  of  an  adequate  rehgion. 


NEED    JEWS    BECOME    ATHEISTS?     33 

turns  to  the  Jewish  scholar,  the  latter  in  his 
exposition  of  Judaism  speaks  first  of  all 
of  the  God  who  has  revealed  Himself  in  the 
history  of  Israel.  That  is  his  first  argu- 
ment— the  metaphysical  considerations  come 
later. 

I  know  that  today  many  will  not  be  so 
easily  satisfied.  They  will  refuse  to  accept 
the  mere  survival  of  the  Jew  as  proof  of 
Providence.  For,  they  will  say,  if  the  Jew 
has  survived,  is  it  not  true  that  he  has  suf- 
fered all  kinds  of  outrage  and  persecution? 
If  the  Jew  is  God's  chosen  people,  then  why 
has  God  permitted  so  much  hardship  and 
misery  to  overtake  him?  Why  all  this  mar- 
tyrdom of  the  Jew,  this  millennial  martyr- 
dom, which  has  not  yet  come  to  an  end? 
People  ask  why  the  Armenians  have  been 
allowed  to  suffer  such  terrible  persecution 
at  the  hands  of  the  Turks — why  God  per- 
mits it.  With  much  more  reason  might  they 
ask  concerning  the  hardships  of  the  Jew! 

Yet,  who  will  deny  that  suffering  is  the 
secret  and  source  of  all  progress,  of  all  hu- 
man beauty  and  achievement?  It  is  part  of 
the  mystery  of  being.    Our  rabbis  have  told 


34      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

us  (long  before  Mr.  Wells)  that  God  Him- 
self suffers  with  His  children  when  they  are 
afflicted.  Betsarathom  lo  tsar — "When  they 
are  afflicted,  He  also  suffers." 

The  Jew's  history,  thanks  to  his  very 
martyrdom,  has  become  one  of  the  noblest 
records  of  mankind — the  sacred  tablet  in  the 
sanctuary  of  the  human  race.  AVe  reaHze 
that  that  history  would  have  been  impossible 
without  the  faith  in  God  which  formed  the 
soul  of  Jewish  existence,  and  which  still  in- 
spires so  many  Jews  in  the  lands  of  persecu- 
tion and  pogroms.  Abraham  odenu  omed 
Uphne  Adonay:  "Still  do  many  sons  and 
daughters  of  Abraham  stand  steadfast  be- 
fore the  Lord!"  But  we  cannot  contemplate 
that  history,  notwithstanding  its  troubles 
and  hardships,  without  feeling  the  operation 
of  a  divine  power  and  a  divine  purpose.  No 
man  can  rise  from  a  study  of  Jewish  history 
— with  its  heroism  and  achievement — with- 
out feeling  fortified  in  faith. 

Nor  is  there  anything  in  modern  philo- 
sophic or  scientific  thought  to  impel  a  Jew 
to  become  an  atheist.    It  is  not  so  very  long 


NEED    JEWS    BECOME    ATHEISTS?     35 

ago  that  people  were  encouraged  to  believe 
that  in  order  to  keep  abreast  the  most  ad- 
vanced thought  of  the  day,  they  had  to  give 
up  religion  and  adopt  atheism.  Philosophy 
was  not  supposed  to  go  hand  in  hand  with 
religion,  nor  science  with  faith.  "Whoever 
has  Art  and  Philosophy,"  said  Goethe,  "has 
Religion;  whoever  has  no  Art,  nor  Philos- 
ophy, let  him  have  Religion!"  Such  was 
the  substance  of  old-time  Positivism. 

Right  now  we  have  in  our  country  M. 
Levy-Bruhl,  the  distinguished  French  so- 
ciologist, who  is  lecturing  at  Harvard  Uni- 
versity. He  is  a  disciple  of  Auguste  Comte, 
and  Comte  taught  that  there  were  three 
stages  in  the  development  of  human  thought 
— the  theological,  the  metaphysic,  and  the 
positive  (or  scientific) — and  that  these  three 
stages  succeeded  one  another  but  could  not 
go  together.  For  a  long  time  that  teaching 
was  accepted  as  the  last  pronouncement  of 
philosophy. 

Yet,  what  do  we  see  today?  Philosophers 
and  scientists  are  among  the  foremost  critics 
of  such  a  gospel.  We  have  learnt  that  phi- 
losophy cannot  fathom  the  whole  mystery 


36      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

of  Creation  and  that  Science  has  not  read 
the  whole  of  its  secret.  Time  and  again  the 
utterances  of  Science  have  proved  inade- 
quate. At  this  very  moment  Professor 
Einstein's  discovery  is  occupying  the  atten- 
tion of  scientists  the  world  over,  and  we  are 
told  that  some  of  the  fundamental  formulic 
of  physics  and  mathematics  might  require 
revision  as  a  result.  ^V^lat  wonder  that 
philosophers  have  turned  more  and  more  to 
a  spiritual  interpretation  of  hfe,  not  only  as 
supplementary  to  Science,  but  as  part  of 
Science?    And  who  says  Spirit,  says  God. 

"They  flock  together  like  tired  birds.    'We  sought 
Full  many  stars  in  many  skies  to  ken, 
But  ever  knowledge  disappointment  brought. 
Thy  light  alone,  O  Lord,  burneth  steadfastly !'  " 

The  emperor  Hadrian,  the  rabbis  relate, 
once  asked  Rabbi  Joshua  whether  there 
really  was  a  Master  in  the  miiverse.  Surely, 
answered  the  rabbi,  the  world  is  not  owner- 
less. "Who  created  the  world?  demanded  the 
ruler.  God,  answered  the  rabbi.  If  so,  con- 
tinued Hadrian,  why  does  He  not  show 
Himself  every  now  and  then,  so  that  men 


NEED    JEWS    BECOME    ATHEISTS?     37 

might  see  Him  and  stand  in  awe  of  Him? 
Because,  rejoined  the  rabbi,  men  cannot 
bear  to  see  His  splendor.  I  shall  not  believe 
you,  insisted  the  emperor,  unless  you  make 
me  see  Him.  At  noon  the  rabbi  turned  him 
toward  the  sky  and  said:  Look  at  the  sun 
and  you  will  see  Him!  The  emperor  re- 
fused. Who  can  stare  at  the  sun?  he  de- 
manded. Quite  so,  answered  the  rabbi;  but 
think  well  of  what  you  are  saying.  If  it  is 
impossible  for  any  creature  to  look  at  the 
sun,  which  is  only  one  of  His  myriad  minis- 
ters, how  much  more  so  to  see  the  Holy 
One  whose  splendor  fills  the  universe ! 

The  scientist  and  the  philosopher  of  today 
are  realizing  that  lack  of  physical  proof 
does  not  spell,  nor  compel,  the  denial  of 
God.  "Nor  is  it  strange,"  as  Dean  Swift 
has  written,  "that  there  should  be  mysteries 
in  divinity  as  well  as  in  the  commonest 
operations  of  Nature." 

But,  it  is  said,  can  we  consider  our  own 
personal  experience  and  yet  believe  in  God? 
Indeed,  from  a  certain  point  of  view,  there 
are  in  the  world  many  things  that  tend  to 


38      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

upset  our  faith.  But  it  depends  upon  the 
notion  that  we  have  of  God.  Some  people 
beheve  that  if  there  is  a  God,  everything  in 
the  world  should  always  be  lovely  and  pleas- 
ant. Therefore,  why  is  there  so  much 
trouble  and  affliction  in  the  world?  But 
that  is  not  necessarily  the  correct  idea  of 
God.  Is  it  not  more  nearly  true  to  say  that 
God  is  the  Spirit  that  pervades  the  world 
and  makes  for  Beauty  and  Righteousness — 
the  Spirit  that  hves  in  us  too  and  impells  us 
to  struggle  toward  Beauty  and  Righteous- 
ness? If  there  is  suffering  and  illness,  it  is 
part  of  the  struggle,  but  life  with  it  is  cer- 
tainly more  beautiful  and  significant  than 
otherwise  it  would  be.  Take  this  Spirit  out 
of  the  world  and  of  human  life,  and  what 
are  they  worth? 

No  one  knows  better  the  emptiness  of  a 
world  without  God,  and  the  barrenness  of 
human  life  without  God,  than  some  of  our 
own  people  who  have  forsaken  their  religion 
because  everything  has  been  well  with  them. 
"Their  gold  and  their  silver  have  made  them 
idols" — said  the  Prophet.  Alas,  that  is  still 
true  all  too  often.     Grown  rich,  they  grow 


NEED    JEWS    BECOME    ATHEISTS?     39 

godless.  But  what  does  it  profit  them? 
Soon  they  discover  the  nudity  of  their  ex- 
istence, and  we  hear  them  speak  of  the  want 
of  spiritual  nourishment,  and  of  soul  hunger, 
and  what  not. 

Rather  than  join  the  ranks  of  atheists, 
modern  Jews  should  try  to  diffuse  their  own 
idea  of  God  in  the  world,  and  to  convert 
their  fellowmen  to  it.  The  world  today  is 
seeldng  and  sifting — it  is  trying  to  find  a 
theism  worthy  of  acceptance.  Is  not  the 
theism  of  the  Jew  worthy  of  such  accep- 
tance? A  recent  Chinese  writer  has  said 
that  in  Europe  they  have  a  religion  which 
satisfies  the  heart  but  is  at  odds  with  the 
head.  The  Jewish  God-idea,  however,  satis- 
fies both  the  head  and  the  heart.  It  is 
spiritual,  it  is  ethical,  it  is  progressive  and 
comprehensive. 

We  need  but  think  of  the  Jewish  God- 
idea  as  revealed  in  the  experience  of  the  first 
and  foremost  of  Israel's  Prophets.  When 
the  Lord  appeared  to  Moses,  He  appeared 
for  an  ethical  purpose,  in  behalf  of  Free- 
dom  and   Righteousness.      Moreover,    He 


40      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

showed  Himself  a  spiritual  God — Moses 
saw  no  image,  he  heard  a  Voice.  And, 
finally,  He  declared  Himself  progressive, 
as  when  Moses  demanded  His  name,  the 
answer  was:  Ehye  asher  ehye,  which  is 
usually  EngHshed  "I  am  that  I  am,"  but 
which  should  really  be  translated:  "I  shall 
be  what  I  shall  be."  Israel's  God-idea  was 
to  be  progressive,  in  accord  with  the  unfold- 
ing need  and  advancing  intelligence  of  the 
ages.  And  such  the  Jewish  God-idea  has 
remained — ethical,  spiritual,  and  progres- 
sive— the  very  kind  of  theism  men  are  seek- 
ing today. 

What  we  need  is  to  be  more  eager  and 
more  energetic  in  spreading  this  God-idea 
among  our  fellowmen  and  in  making  it 
active  in  the  promotion  of  human  happiness. 
"Too  long  has  Israel  been  silent,"  as  Mr. 
Israel  Zangwill  has  said. 

To  thy  task,  then,  O  Irsael !  Make  you  a 
new  heart  and  a  new  spirit — as  the  Prophet 
demands — for  why  will  ye  die,  O  house  of 
Israel — die  a  spiritual  death,  the  death  of 
the  soul?    Let  us  give  heed  to  the  teachings 


NEED    JEWS    BECOME    ATHEISTS?     41 

of  our  history — to  the  course  of  contem- 
porary thought — to  the  lessons  of  our  own 
experience,  and  we  shall  realize  that  there  is 
no  good  reason  why  we  should  forsake  our 
God.  On  the  contrary,  now  as  of  yore,  it  is 
by  loyalty  to  the  Lord,  and  by  doing  the 
Lord's  work  in  the  world,  that  sons  and 
daughters  of  Israel  shall  be  justified,  and 
shall  glory ! 


IV 

NEED  JEWS  BECOME  CHRISTIAN 
SCIENTISTS? 

"Lo,  they  have  rejected  the  word  of 
the  Lord,  and  what  wisdom  is  in  them?" 
— Jeremiah  8,  9. 

ONE  watches  with  amazement  the  vast 
number  of  Jewish  people  who  are 
joining  the  Christian  Science  Church. 
The  proportion  of  Jewish  converts  to  this 
cult  must  be  very  high.  Indeed,  it  is  said 
that  some  Christian  Science  churches  in  the 
city  of  New  York  consist  well-nigh  entirely 
of  former  Jews.  I  say  former  Jews,  be- 
cause it  must  be  clear  that  one  cannot  be  a 
member  of  such  a  church  and  yet  call  him- 
self a  Jew.  Judaism  has  never  tolerated 
such  combinations.  If  it  has  been  said  jest- 
ingly that  Christian  Science  is  neither  sci- 
entific nor  Christian,  it  may  certainly  be 
affirmed  that  one  cannot  join  a  Christian 

43 


44      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

Science  church  and  still  call  himself  an  ad- 
herent of  Judaism.  So  much  the  more 
reason  for  trying  to  answer  the  question 
whether  Christian  Science  has  anything  to 
offer  which  would  justify  a  Jew  in  quitting 
his  own  faith  in  its  behalf. 

Let  us  consider  what  it  is  that  this  new 
cult  stands  for,  and  what  attracts  so  many 
people  to  it.  Let  us  consider  the  best 
motives  that  inspire  people  to  embrace  it. 
No  doubt,  some  go  to  it  from  lower  motives. 
There  are  those  who  become  Christian 
Scientists  because  so  many  others  have 
done  so.  They  are  mimics.  They  change 
religions  as  lightly  as  one  changes  a  coat. 
Others  probably  use  the  cult  as  a  gateway 
to  association  with  non-Jews.  But  apart 
from  these  two  classes,  there  is  undoubt- 
edly a  large  number  who  go  into  Christian 
Science  for  what  it  offers  them  and  for  the 
help  they  get  out  of  it.  Let  us,  therefore, 
think  of  what  these  boons  are  and  try  to  de- 
termine whether  for  the  sake  of  them,  one 
needs  forsake  the  faith  of  one's  fathers — 
whether,  indeed,  Judaism  does  not  offer  the 
same  gifts  even  more  abundantly  than  any 


JEWS  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENTISTS     45 

other  faith  to  all  such  as  will  turn  to  it  in  a 
sincere  and  willing  spirit. 

As  far  as  we  know,  Christian  Science 
stands  for  three  things:  a  cheerful  attitude 
to  hfe,  first  of  all;  then,  a  method  of  spirit- 
ual healing;  and,  finally,  the  denial  of  the 
existence  of  evil.  These  are  the  benefits 
which  we  are  constantly  told  its  devotees 
obtain  from  Christian  Science.  It  makes 
them  more  cheerful  than  they  ever  were  be- 
fore. It  cures  them  from  disease  without 
the  aid  of  physicians  or  drugs.  And  it  con- 
vinces them  that  evil  has  no  real  existence 
in  the  world — that  evil  is  a  mere  figment  of 
the  imagination  or  a  mental  error. 

If  all  this  be  so,  how  shall  we  blame  people 
for  turning  to  such  a  creed?  Happiness  is 
something  everybody  wants.  All  the  world 
is  looking  for  the  blue-bird  of  M.  Maeter- 
linck's fancy.  And  if  Christian  Science  is 
the  universal  blue-bird,  who  could  be  blamed 
for  embracing  it? 

The  truth  is,  however,  that  Christian 
Science  is  far  from  being  the  religious  pana- 
cea that  some  people  represent  or  imagine 


46      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

it  to  be.  That  it  contains  some  good  ele- 
ments, no  one  will  deny.  That  it  has  helped 
people,  no  one  will  deny.  But  it  is  equally 
true  that  it  contains  certain  elements  which 
no  rational  person  can  possibly  accept,  which 
far  from  removing  error,  are  in  themselves 
grossly  erroneous,  and  which  certainly  are 
inferior  to  the  teachings  and  the  ideals  of 
the  Jewish  religion.  Moreover,  it  is  certain 
that  whatever  is  good  in  Christian  Science 
was  foreshadowed  and  promulgated  by  Ju- 
daism long  ago,  and  a  Jew  need  not  go  out- 
side his  own  rehgious  heritage  to  find  such 
good.  All  he  need  do  is  to  turn  to  the  teach- 
ings and  treasures  of  Judaism,  and  he  will 
find  all  he  seeks,  if  indeed  it  can  be  found. 

Right  here  we  touch  the  radical  difference 
between  Judaism  and  Christian  Science — a 
difference  which  to  every  logical  person 
must  demonstrate  the  superiority  of  Juda- 
ism. Christian  Science  insists  on  a  cheerful 
attitude  to  life.  But  so  does  Judaism.  The 
keynote  of  Judaism  is  joy.  Ibhdu  eth  Ado- 
nay  be-simha  might  almost  be  called  its 
motto.    "Serve  the  Lord  with  joy!"  "Work 


JEWS  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENTISTS     47 

with  the  Lord  in  joy!"  "Worship  the  Lord 
joyously!"  All  this  is  implied  in  the  He- 
brew word  Ibhdu.  This  is  the  spirit  of 
Judaism.  It  is  not  a  lugubrious  rehgion. 
And  we  know  from  the  history  of  the  Jew 
that  this  joyous  element  of  Judaism  has 
helped  both  the  whole  Jewish  people  and 
millions  of  Jewish  individuals  over  the 
rough  places  of  life — helped  them  to  live, 
to  toil,  and  to  endure.  Judaism  has  incul- 
cated joy  just  as  much  as  any  religion 
founded  on  faith  and  hope. 

At  the  same  time,  Judaism  has  never  been 
guilty  of  confusing  true  joy  with  false  joy. 
There  is  a  certain  kind  of  cheerfulness  which 
is  not  genuine — it  is  assumed,  superficial, 
forced — and  such  hypocritic  cheerfulness  is 
worse  than  none,  for  it  hides  the  truth  and 
leaves  the  heart  empty.  There  is  too  much 
of  such  feigned  cheerfulness  in  the  world. 
It  does  no  good.  It  is  like  taking  opiates. 
The  victim  is  the  worse  for  it  when  the  effect 
is  over. 

Much  more  beneficent  is  the  joyousness 
which  Judaism  tries  to  develop.  It  does 
not  deny  that  there  is  in  life  many  an  oc- 


48      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

casion  for  sorrow.  Indeed,  some  of  the  most 
beautiful  things  in  Ufe  may  spring  out  of 
the  heart  of  sorrow.  Sorrow  not  only  is 
real,  but  it  is  beneficent.  Some  of  the 
world's  noblest  achievements  have  been 
inspired  by  sorrow.  Sorrow  has  brought 
forth  some  of  the  world's  noblest  poetry. 
"Our  sweetest  songs,"  says  Shelley  in  his 
ode  "To  a  Skylark,"  "are  those  that  tell  of 
saddest  thought."  Heine  has  said  that  it 
was  out  of  his  great  sorrows  that  he  made 
his  little  songs.  "He  who  would  like  to 
sing  well,"  says  a  Spanish  song,  "Let  him 
sing  when  grieved  at  heart."  Similarly, 
some  of  the  world's  noblest  philanthropies 
were  engendered  by  sorrow.  The  most 
adored  teacher  of  the  Christian  world  is 
called  by  his  devotees  the  Man  of  Sorrows, 
as  the  Prophet  called  Israel  the  Man  of 
Sorrows,  through  whose  suffering  and  afflic- 
tion the  world  was  to  be  healed. 

Judaism,  I  say,  recognizes  not  only  the 
reality  but  the  beneficence  of  sorrow.  Yet, 
it  bids  us  turn  sorrow  into  joy  through  the 
ministry  of  faith  and  hope — those  chief 
elements  of  the  religious  life.     "Light  is 


JEWS  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENTISTS     49 

sown  for  the  righteous  and  joy  for  the  up- 
right in  heart!"  This  is  the  conviction  with 
which  Judaism  seeks  to  fill  our  heart.  It 
would  not  have  us  go  about  everlastingly 
smiling  and  grinning,  as  if  that  were  our 
sole  duty,  it  would  not  duU  our  hearts  to 
sorrow,  when  sorrow  comes,  and  thus  rob  us 
of  sensibility,  but  rather  come  what  may  it 
would  have  us  make  sure  we  are  on  the  side 
of  the  right,  and  then  trust  in  that  light  and 
joy  which  are  stored  up  for  those  whose 
heart  is  clean  and  straight.  "Observe  mercy 
and  justice  and  hope  upon  thy  God  con- 
tinually!" And,  with  all  due  deference  to 
Christian  Science,  I  believe  this  is  the  more 
wholesome  and  more  helpful  doctrine. 

The  same  may  be  said  in  regard  to  disease. 

To  know  anything  at  all  about  these  mat- 
ters, is  to  know  that  many  an  ailment  can 
be  treated  by  spiritual  means  more  effec- 
tively than  with  drugs.  No  physician  worthy 
the  name  is  ignorant  of  this  fact,  nor  fails 
to  act  upon  it.  Of  Dr.  Osier,  the  illustrious 
physician  who  died  the  other  day,  Walt 
Whitman,  who  was  treated  by  him,   said 


50      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

thirty  years  ago:  "Osier  believes  in  the 
gospel  of  encouragment — of  putting  the 
best  construction  on  things."  No  physician 
of  worth  has  ever  failed  to  take  account  of 
the  spiritual  element  in  heahng;  certainly 
not  those  Jewish  physicians  who  like  their 
great  prototype,  Maimonides,  combine  medi- 
cal skill  with  philosophic  and  religious  un- 
derstanding. 

But  to  jump  from  this  fact  to  the  affirma- 
tion that  every  disease  is  a  mental  error,  and 
can  be  cured  by  mental  or  spiritual  means, 
is  an  exaggeration  or  aberration  which  no 
rational  person  can  accept.  It  matters  not 
how  many  arguments  may  be  advanced,  or 
how  many  passages  of  Scriptures  may  be 
twisted,  to  fortify  such  a  thesis.  It  goes 
counter  to  the  facts,  and  no  person  in  his 
senses  can  subscribe  to  it. 

Indeed,  in  reality  even  Christian  Science 
does  not  accept  this  thesis.  In  France  I 
met  some  Christian  Science  healers,  who 
made  the  rounds  of  the  hospitals  where 
many  of  our  American  men  were  sick  and 
wounded.  No  doubt,  they  helped  them  by 
their  kindly  ministration.     Some  of  them 


JEWS  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENTISTS     61 

did  admirable  work.  But  would  they  for  a 
moment  have  asserted  that  they  could  help 
those  men,  or  save  their  lives,  without  the 
intervention  of  the  surgeons? 

Just  here  we  find  Judaism  much  more 
true.  It  does  not  brush  aside  disease  as 
unreal,  as  an  error  of  the  mind.  It  warns 
us  against  the  kind  of  life  which  results  in 
illness.  It  lauds  the  physician  who  seeks 
to  cure  the  sick.  It  urges  us  to  combat 
disease  and  to  create  agencies  for  the  dimin- 
ution of  its  ravages.  But  at  the  same  time 
it  reminds  us  of  the  great  help  which  faith — 
with  the  exercises  of  faith — affords  in  the 
healing  of  disease  and  the  gaining  of  health 
and  fortitude. 

"Whence  comes  Solace?    Not  from  seeing 
What  is  doing,  suifering,  being: 
Not  from  noting  Life's  conditions, 
Not  from  heeding  Time's  monitions; 
But  in  cleaving  to  the  Dream, 
And  in  gazing  on  the  gleam 
Whereby  gray  things  golden  seem." 

Nor  can  we  deny  that  Judaism  is  more 
sound  than  Christian  Science  in  its  attitude 
to  the  general  fact  of  evil  in  the  world. 


62      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

We  are  asked  to  believe  that  evil  does  not 
exist  in  the  world — that  if  we  think  it  ex- 
ists, it  is  a  fault  of  our  own  mind.  We  are 
asked  to  think  nothing  but  joy,  and  good- 
ness, and  happiness,  and  so  forth.  The 
question  is.  Does  such  an  attitude  really  re- 
move the  evil  from  the  world?  Does  it,  for 
instance,  abolish  all  the  misery  that  exists 
in  the  world  today  as  a  result  of  the  war? 
It  is  to  shut  oneself  up  in  the  worst  of  fool's 
paradises  to  have  such  illusions.  Today, 
when  the  world  is  full  of  misery,  when  in 
some  countries  men,  women,  and  little  chil- 
dren are  starving,  and  dying,  and  being 
massacred — today  for  us  who  are  comfor- 
table and  content  to  maintain  that  there  is 
no  evil,  is  to  be  guilty  of  sin  against  the  very 
Holy  Spirit.  Moreover,  to  comfort  oneself 
with  such  notions  is  to  make  impossible  all 
improvement  among  men,  all  progress  in  the 
elimination  of  evil  from  the  world.  AVhat 
we  want  is  to  face  the  evil  that  does  exist 
among  men,  and  then  make  every  effort 
possible  to  uproot  it.  And  this  is  what  the 
true  prophets  of  Judaism,  and  all  true  Jews, 
have  tried  to  do — not  to  heal  the  wounds  of 


JEWS  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENTISTS     53 

the  world  lightly,  crying  Peace,  when  there 
is  no  peace — but  rather  to  expose  and  to 
deplore  the  evil  and  to  move  mankind  to  get 
rid  of  it  and  to  put  the  good  in  its  place. 
Who  can  fail  to  see  that  in  this  regard  also 
Judaism  is  right? 

This  being  so,  what  advantage  have  they 
who  leave  the  Jewish  rehgion  for  the  sake 
of  Christian  Science?  "Lo,  they  have  re- 
jected the  word  of  the  Lord,  but  what  wis- 
dom have  they  got?"  Of  course,  we  have 
a  right  to  joy  and  health  and  the  good.  But 
they  can  be  gotten  only  if  we  live  so  as  to 
earn  them.  Otherwise,  we  possess  only 
shadows. 

The  trouble,  however,  is  that  often  we 
neglect  Judaism,  and  then  we  wonder  why 
it  does  not  help  us.  There  is  many  a  Jew 
and  Jewess  who  never  looked  at  the  Bible 
with  their  native  Jewish  eyes,  though  now 
they  scan  it  through  the  spectacles  of  Chris- 
tian Science  and  think  it  full  of  marvelous 
things. 

Let  us  love  our  Judaism,  let  us  study  it, 
let  us  work  for  it  heart  and  soul, — let  us 


54      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

work  as  hard  for  Judaism  as  do  the  con- 
verts to  Christian  Science  for  their  new 
cult — and  then  we  shall  find  what  rich  gifts 
it  has  in  store  for  its  devotees,  far  surpass- 
ing those  of  any  other  faith. 


V 

NEED  JEWS  BECOME  ETHICAL 
CULTURISTS? 

"The  Lord  hath  a  controversy  with  His 
people,  and  He  will  plead  with  Israel," — 
Micah  6,  2. 

AMONG  the  various  new  cults  that 
have  taken  Jewish  people  away  from 
their  own  religion,  none  has  sur- 
passed Ethical  Culture.  It  is  not  my 
purpose  to  quarrel  with  the  founders  or 
promoters  of  that  movement.  No  one  can 
deny  that  the  movement  has  done  some 
good.  It  has  been  associated  with  several 
activities  of  undoubted  educational  and 
civic  importance.  It  has  unquestionably 
stimulated  its  members  to  ethical  effort  in 
different  directions  and  contributed  to  the 
diffusion  of  ethical  idealism.  Nevertheless, 
one  cannot  help  asking  whether  the  ideals 
and  the  work  of  the  Ethical  Culture  Society 
are  such  as  to  justify  a  Jew  in  leaving  his 
own  faith,  and  whether  a  Jew  needs  depart 

65 


56      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

from  his  own  religion,  in  order  to  do  the 
things  which  Ethical  Culture  demands. 

For,  this  is  what  it  comes  to.  Jews  identi- 
fied actively  with  the  Ethical  Culture  move- 
ment are  as  a  rule  lost  to  Judaism.  It  is 
distinctly  a  movement  away  from  Judaism, 
though  it  was  founded  by  Jews,  and  though 
it  is  regarded  by  some  good  and  loyal  Jew- 
ish people  as  in  no  way  injurious  to  Juda- 
ism, or  even  as  one  phase  of  modern  Jewish 
activity.  No  doubt,  some  few  may  join  the 
Ethical  Culture  group  and  yet  remain  loyal 
to  the  old  faith;  but  the  majority  not  only 
abandon  Judaism,  but  become  hostile  to  it, 
regarding  it  as  something  inferior  and  to  be 
ashamed  of.  While  originally  Ethical  Cul- 
ture was  designed  as  a  substitute  for  both 
Judaism  and  Christianity,  it  has  finally  led 
to  relinquishment  of  Judaism  and  partial 
adoption  of  Christianity,  if  it  has  not  be- 
come wholly  a  gateway  to  Christianity. 

Take,  for  instance,  the  holidays.  That 
they  do  not  observe  the  Sabbath,  the  tradi- 
tional symbol  of  Judaism,  goes  without 
saying.  But  other  Jewish  holidays,  even 
those  fraught  with  much  ethical  significance. 


JEWS  AND  ETHICAL  CULTURISTS     57 

they  have  also  brushed  aside.  Christmas 
they  observe,  but  Hanukkah  they  ignore. 
They  keep  Easter,  but  Passover  does  not 
exist  for  them.  Holidays  founded  on  the 
theology  of  Christianity — a  theology  which 
even  many  Christians  are  discarding — they 
find  acceptable,  but  holidays  carrying  the 
heroic  message  of  Israel's  fight  for  freedom 
and  morality  are  not  good  enough  for  them. 
Who  will  deny,  then,  that  Ethical  Culture, 
with  its  numerous  recruits  from  Judaism, 
means  either  immediate  or  ultimate  apos- 
tasy? 

Granting,  then,  that  the  aims  of  the 
Ethical  Culture  movement  are  good,  is  there 
any  good  reason  why  Jews  shall  leave  their 
own  faith  and  religious  obligations  in  order 
to  pursue  those  aims?  If  we  examine  this 
question  calmly  and  conscientiously,  I  think 
we  shall  say  No. 

For,  what  is  the  chief  aim  of  Ethical  Cul- 
ture? It  is  the  love,  the  study,  and  the 
pursuit  of  the  right.  "Dedicated  to  the 
ever-increasing  knowledge  and  practice  and 
love  of  the  right" — thus  reads  the  legend 


58      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

on  the  wall  of  its  meeting-house.  This  is 
what  Ethical  Culture  has  stood  for.  Theol- 
ogy, it  says,  does  not  count.  Metaphysical 
speculation  does  not  matter.  The  right 
counts.  Ethics  is  pragmatic.  What  makes 
it  worth  while  is  the  practical  acceptance 
of  it  and  its  apphcation  to  everyday  life. 
Therefore,  the  Ethical  Culture  group  dedi- 
cated itself  to  the  love,  and  the  study,  and 
the  practice  of  the  Right. 

But  can  anyone  at  all  acquainted  with 
Judaism  say  that  this  very  thing  has  not  at 
all  times  formed  the  essence  of  Judaism? 
Judaism  has  had  a  long  history.  It  has 
gone  through  many  stages.  It  has  been  in 
touch  with  many  forms  of  thought  and 
culture.  It  has  undergone  many  minor 
changes.  But  in  one  respect  Judaism  has 
remained  invariably  the  same.  It  has  al- 
ways been  an  ethical  religion,  a  religion 
which  made  love  and  practice  of  the  right 
both  the  foundation  and  the  keynote  of  its 
structure.  This  is  so  true  of  Judaism,  that 
one  need  not  have  much  knowledge  of  Jew- 
ish doctrine  or  history  to  be  able  to  confirm 
it.     It  is  something  he  who  runs  may  read. 


JEWS  AND  ETHICAL  CULTURISTS     59 

Indeed,  one  need  but  think  of  some  of  the 
fundamental  phrases  and  outstanding  per- 
sonalities of  the  Jewish  religion  in  order  to 
recall  this  fact. 

What  is  the  classic  phrase  of  the  Bible 
for  religious  conduct?  "To  walk  before  the 
Lord  and  to  be  perfect."  This  is  the  Bible's 
understanding  of  the  religious  life.  The 
tribute  it  pays  to  its  own  early  heroes  is  that 
they  walked  with  the  Lord  and  were  per- 
fect with  Him — tamim,  wholly  with  Him, 
as  the  Hebrew  has  it.  To  be  wholly  at  one 
with  God  in  one's  conduct,  is  the  Bible's 
idea  of  perfection.  "Ye  shall  be  holy,  for 
I  the  Lord  your  God  am  holy!"  The  ideal 
of  rehgion  was  the  ideal  of  ethical  integrity, 
of  moral  perfection  and  hohness.  Israel 
knew  no  other  concept  of  rehgion. 

And  when  we  think  of  the  Prophets,  the 
chief  men  of  Israel,  what  then?  We  are 
reminded  of  men  who  were  the  most  power- 
ful champions  and  advocates  of  the  Right 
the  world  has  ever  known.  To  them  the 
right  was  the  most  important  thing  not  only 
in  human  life  but  in  the  universe.  It  was 
the  basic  principle  of  the  world,  the  most 


60     THE    ADEQUACY   OF   JUDAISM 

enduring  thing  in  Creation — the  mountains 
might  depart,  nations  might  vanish,  their 
own  people  might  be  destroyed,  but  Right- 
eousness nevermore:  such  was  their  faith. 

"The  heavens  shall  vanish  away  like  smoke, 
And  the  earth  shall  wax  old  like  a  garment, 
And   they   that   dwell   therein   shall   die   in   like 

manner ; 
But  My  salvation  shall  be  for  ever. 
And  My  righteousness  shall  not  be  dismayed!" 

And  the  Prophets  could  see  no  salvation 
nor  happiness  for  their  own  people,  nor  for 
humanity,  as  long  as  the  demands  of  the 
Right  were  violated.  "Cease  to  do  evil, 
learn  to  do  right!"  was  the  plea  of  Isaiah. 
JDirshu  tob  weal  ra  lemaan  tiheyu  begged 
Micah.  ' '  S  eek —  study — demand — pursue 
the  good,  and  not  evil — that  ye  might  live !" 
Had  Israel  followed  the  right,  the  Prophet 
affirmed,  they  would  have  escaped  downfall. 
And  today,  as  we  survey  the  course  of 
civilization  and  the  history  of  human  failure 
and  suffering,  we  may  well  ask  whether,  if 
mankind  had  followed  the  precept  of  the 
Prophets,  its  misfortunes  might  not  have 
been  avoided. 


JEWS  AND  ETHICAL  CULTURISTS     61 

"Oh,  that  thou  wouldst  hearken  to  My  command- 
ments ! 
Then  would  thy  peace  be  as  a  river, 
And  thy  righteousness  as  the  waves  of  the  sea." 

Certain,  however,  it  is  that  no  one  can  read 
the  records  or  recall  the  history  of  Judaism 
without  realizing  that  the  love,  the  study, 
and  the  practice  of  the  right  was  central  to 
its  teachings.  Moses,  said  Josephus,  did 
not  make  religion  a  department  of  virtue, 
but  the  various  virtues  departments  of  re- 
ligion. Why,  then,  should  any  Jew  aban- 
don Judaism  because  of  concern  for  ethical 
pursuits  ? 

I  know  some  will  say  that  Ethical  Cul- 
ture cut  loose  from  the  God-idea,  from 
theology  and  speculation,  and  therefore  it  is 
superior  to  Judaism.  It  confines  its  interest 
to  ethics  alone.  But  has  this  really  proved 
a  sign  of  superiority?  Has  it  proved  pos- 
sible for  Ethical  Culture  to  ignore  the 
question  of  God  and  to  refrain  from  specu- 
lation on  the  meaning  of  life  and  of  human 
destiny? 

The  fact  is  that  the  people  of  the  Ethical 


62      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

^^  Culture  group  can  no  more  escape  these 
topics  than  any  other  rational  person.  At 
first,  in  the  exuberance  of  youth,  a  man 
may  be  content  with  action.  But  the  more 
mature  he  grows,  the  more  contemplative 
he  must  get.  He  cannot  act  long,  without 
being  prompted  to  ask  the  meaning  and 
purpose  of  action  and  of  life.  Particularly 
in  profound  moments,  at  critical  turns  of 
human  experience,  in  moments  when  the 
human  soul,  as  M.  Maeterlinck  has  said,  is 
most  alone,  in  moments  of  birth  and  of 
death — at  such  times  we  cannot  escape  those 
questions  which  touch  the  core  of  our  life 
and  destiny.  At  such  moments  we  are 
likely  to  turn  to  divine  faith  for  the  strength 
we  need. 

An  incident  I  heard  of  the  other  day  will 
illustrate  it.  There  was  a  Jewish  lady  in 
this  city  who  had  been  among  the  first  mem- 
bers of  the  Ethical  Culture  Society.  Both 
she  and  her  husband  attended  the  meetings 
of  the  Society  for  many  years.  Yet,  when 
her  husband  died,  much  to  the  surprise  of 
her  family,  she  produced  her  old  Jewish 
Prayer  Book  and  began  reading  anew  the 


JEWS  AND  ETHICAL  CULTURISTS     63 

old  prayers  she  had  known  in  youth  but  had 
laid  aside  for  many  a  day.  It  was  in  those 
old  meditations  she  sought  solace  when 
trouble  came.  This  story  I  heard  from  the 
lips  of  her  own  son,  who  himself  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Ethical  Culture  Society,  and  as 
I  heard  it  I  could  not  but  think  of  those 
pregnant  words  of  Isaiah,  in  which  he  tells 
us  of  what  becomes  in  moments  of  real  sor- 
row of  the  pleasant  plants  we  have  planted 
as  we  forgot  the  God  of  our  salvation: 

"For  thou  hast  forgotten  the  God  of  thy  salvation, 

And  thou  hast  not  been  mindful  of  the  Rock  of 
thy  stronghold; 

Therefore  thou  didst  plant  plants  of  pleasant- 
ness, 

And  didst  set  it  with  strange  slips ; 

In  the  day  of  thy  planting  thou  didst  make  it  to 
grow. 

And  in  the  morning  thou  didst  make  thy  seed  to 
blossom — 

A  heap  of  boughs  in  the  day  of  grief 

And  of  desperate  pain!" 

At  such  moments,  I  say,  we  feel  the 
strength  that  comes  from  divine  faith. 

And,  indeed,  does  not  the  very  practice 
of  the  right  depend,  in  large  measure,  on 
the  support  and  constraint  of  faith — on  the 


64      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

urge  of  religion?  It  is  all  very  well  to  laud 
and  to  commend  the  right.  It  is  all  very 
well  to  sing  the  praises  of  an  ethical  life. 
But  when  it  comes  to  the  actual  living  of 
the  moral  life — with  the  self-denials  and 
self-discipline  and  sacrifices  it  entails — does 
not  ethics  prove  a  more  complex  thing  than 
the  academic  lecturer  would  have  us  believe? 
Does  not  the  question  arise  why  we  should 
consider  ethics  at  all?  If  the  world  is  a 
place  without  God,  then  who  is  there  to  lay 
upon  us  any  ethical  compulsion  and  to  set 
before  us  any  ethical  ideals? 

The  nobility  of  Jewish  ethics  has  been  due 
to  the  high  standard  and  the  exalted  pat- 
tern upon  which  it  is  founded.  "Ye  shall 
be  holy,  for  I  the  Lord  your  God  am  holy!" 
Perhaps  in  ordinary  moments  we  can  get 
along  with  an  ethical  doctrine  based  solely 
on  our  own  impulse  of  right.  But  in  dif- 
ficult moments,  in  decisive  moments,  in  mo- 
ments of  temptation  and  confusion,  we  need 
something  higher  and  stronger  than  that: 
we  need  an  ethics  loftier  and  more  potent 
and  inspiring  that  the  dictation  of  our  own 
caprice  or  desire.     It  is  at  such  times  that 


JEWS  AND  ETHICAL  CULTURISTS     65 

we  feel  the  ethical  value  of  faith.  Akh  ha- 
Adonay  tzadoqoth  we-oz,  as  Isaiah  has  it: 
"Only  through  the  Lord  do  we  gain  strength 
for  life  and  its  ethical  tasks."  Or,  as  the 
medieval  Christian  mystic  has  it:  "Divine 
faith  is  the  beginning  of  every  grace,  of  all 
gifts,  and  of  all  divine  virtues,  since  it  is  a 
certain  supernatural  light  and  the  founda- 
tion of  all  good." 

No  wonder  in  recent  years  we  have  wit- 
nessed renewed  discussion  of  rehgious  topics 
among  Ethical  Culture  people.  They  are 
now  trying  to  make  religion  a  department 
of  ethics.  But  if  Religion  is  needed,  surely 
none  better  exists  for  devotees  of  Ethical 
Culture  than  Judaism — Judaism  with  its 
simple  creed — Judaism  with  its  emphasis  on 
ethics — Judaism  summed  up  by  one  of  its 
Prophets  as  a  fusion  of  justice,  love,  and 
humility;  and  surely  none  better  for  those 
devotees  of  Ethical  Culture  who  themselves 
are,  or  were,  Jews. 

This  is  the  controversy  the  Lord  today 
has  with  his  people,  this  His  plea  with 
Israel! 


66      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

Why  shall  we  abandon  Judaism  for  the 
sake  of  the  very  things  Judaism  has  taught 
the  world  and  for  the  \'indication  of  which 
Jewish  martyrs  have  time  and  again  given 
their  lives?  "Whatever  the  scientific  stu- 
dent of  culture  may  think  of  Hebrew  ethics 
and  rehgion,"  Professor  Ellwood  writes  in 
his  book  on  "The  Social  Problem,"  "he  must 
acknowledge  the  conquest  of  the  Western 
world  by  Hebrew  ethical  and  religious  ideas 
and  ideals  to  be  one  of  the  most  wonderful 
phenomena  of  recorded  history."  But  this 
rehgion  and  this  ethics  the  Jew  not  only 
taught;  he  fought  for  it,  also,  and  suffered 
for  it.  Did  not  the  Maccabees  shed  their 
blood  so  that  Righteousness  might  live,  and 
did  not  their  sacrifices  save  the  moral  civili- 
zation of  the  world?  Is  not  this  the  story 
we  read  in  the  hghts  kindled  in  their  mem- 
ory? Is  not  this  the  message  of  Judaism? 
"O,  house  of  Jacob,  come,  let  us  walk  in  the 
light  of  the  Lord!"  Let  us  learn  to  know 
and  to  love  our  faith,  and  we  shall  find  we 
need  none  other  to  satisfy  our  ethical  needs 
and  to  spur  on  our  ethical  ideals  I 


VI 

NEED   JEWS    BECOME 
UNITARIANS? 

"Lo,  this  is  our  God:  we  have  waited 
for  Him,  and  He  will  save  us." — Isaiah 
25,  9. 

THE  other  day  I  had  a  rather  strange 
experience.  A  gentleman  brought 
his  children  to  our  Rehgious  School, 
and  registering  them  for  admission,  he  re- 
marked that  he  himself  belonged  to  a  certain 
Unitarian  Church,  yet  he  was  wilhng  his 
children  should  receive  instruction  in  the 
Jewish  religion.  Later  on,  he  added,  they 
might  decide  for  themselves  whether  to  re- 
main Jews  or  to  become  Unitarians. 

This  incident  served  to  remind  me  of  the 
considerable  number  of  Jewish  people  who 
lately  have  identified  themselves  with  the 
Unitarians,  and  of  the  overtures  made  to 
other  Jews  to  follow  their  example.  It  is 
an  open  secret  that  even  on  the  governing 

67 


68      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

boards  of  certain  Unitarian  churches  are 
found  the  names  of  former  Jews,  just  as  we 
find  such  names  on  similar  committees  of 
more  orthodox  Christian  churches.  May 
we  not,  therefore,  stop  to  ask  the  question 
— nay,  ought  we  not  to  ask  the  question — 
whether  there  is  any  good  reason  why  Jews 
should  become  Unitarians? 

At  first  blush  the  arguments  advanced  in 
favor  of  such  conversion  might  seem  very 
plausible.  There  is  not  much  difference,  we 
are  told,  between  Unitarianism  and  Juda- 
ism. The  two  rehgions  stand  for  the  same 
spiritual  and  ethical  ideals.  Unitarianism, 
we  are  informed,  rejects  those  very  dogmas 
of  Christianity  which  Judaism  has  always 
opposed.  Unitarianism,  we  are  assured  by 
some  of  its  exponents,  even  recognizes  that 
its  noblest  ideas  of  religion  and  morality 
came  down  to  it  from  Judaism.  Inasmuch, 
therefore,  as  Judaism  and  Unitarianism 
have  so  much  in  common,  why  shall  not 
Jews  give  up  their  separateness  and  become 
Unitarians  ? 

Though  such  arguments  may  seem  allur- 


NEED  JEWS  BECOME  UNITARIANS?     69 

ing,  they  cannot  satisfy  the  thoughtful 
person.  No  such  man  will  abandon  his  own 
ancestral  religion  simply  because  another 
religion  has  come  to  adopt  its  views  and 
visions.  On  the  contrary,  if  Unitarians 
have  come  around  to  the  Jewish  point  of 
view — such  a  person  will  say — then  let  them 
adopt  Judaism.  Rehgion  is  much  too  seri- 
ous a  part  of  life  for  an  honest  man  to  give 
it  up  lightly  in  favor  of  another  religion. 
"The  strength  and  the  weakness  of  a  man," 
an  eminent  English  critic  has  said,  "are 
rooted  in  his  religious  belief.  It  presides 
over  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  his  days; 
it  hallows  his  going  out  and  his  coming  in." 
One  condition  only  might  justify  us  to 
abandon  Judaism  and  become  Unitarians, 
namely,  if  it  could  be  proved  that  Uni- 
tarianism  as  a  religion  is  superior  to  Juda- 
ism, and  not  merely  that  it  has  certain  things 
in  common  with  the  old  religion. 

Is,  then,  Unitarianism  superior  to  Juda- 
ism? 

We  are  told  it  is  superior,  first  of  all,  be- 
cause Unitarianism  is  a  universal  rehgion. 


70      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

embracing  people  of  different  kinds,  whereas 
Judaism  is  merely  a  racial  or  national  re- 
ligion. If  this  were  a  true  description  of 
Judaism,  it  would  form  a  serious  indict- 
ment. But  that  it  is  not  true  must  be 
admitted  by  everybody  familiar  with  the 
contents  of  Judaism  and  with  its  influence 
upon  the  world.  The  very  fact  that  Uni- 
tarians admit  that  they  got  their  ethical 
and  religious  ideas  from  the  Jews  proves 
that  they  contradict  themselves  when  they 
maintain  that  Judaism  is  not  universal. 
The  fact  is  that  Judaism  has  been  a  uni- 
versal religion  in  its  ideals  and  teachings 
from  its  very  beginning,  and  though  in  name 
it  has  not  been  generally  adopted  it  has 
exercised  practically  a  universal  influence. 
We  need  but  think  of  the  Bible.  It  is 
the  most  universal  book  man  possesses. 
There  is  nothing  like  it  in  the  whole  range 
of  the  world's  literature.  It  has  been  trans- 
lated into  hundreds  of  tongues,  from  the 
most  refined  languages  to  crudest  dialects, 
it  has  been  carried  to  the  remotest  corners 
of  the  globe,  and  it  has  served  as  founda- 
tion to  the  moral  codes  and  spiritual  systems 


NEED  JEWS  BECOME  UNITARIANS?     71 

of  most  diverse  peoples.  Does  not  this  show 
that  the  Bible  is  a  universal  work — ^that 
what  it  tells  and  teaches  is  able  to  appeal 
to  all  manner  of  men  and  races? 

Moreover,  would  this  have  been  possible 
if  Judaism,  which  produced  the  Bible,  were 
a  mere  tribal  religion?  No  Bible  rises 
higher  than  its  source.  The  Jewish  Bible 
could  not  have  become  so  universal  a  book 
if  the  Jewish  religion  from  which  it  sprang 
were  not  universal,  as  universal  it  always 
has  been,  notwithstanding  affirmation  to  the 
contrary,  in  its  construction  of  the  world, 
in  its  precepts  of  righteousness,  in  its  ideals 
and  hopes.  When  Isaiah  utters  the  words 
of  Israel's  God,  "Turn  unto  Me  and  be 
saved,  all  ye  ends  of  the  earth,  for  I  am  God 
and  there  is  none  other!" — when  Isaiah,  I 
say,  utters  those  Divine  words,  he  sums  up 
the  universal  character  which  has  distin- 
guished Judaism  from  beginning  to  end.  It 
is  true  that  Israel  was  charged  to  do  the 
work  of  Judaism  in  the  world,  but  the  work 
itself  was  designed  for  the  whole  world,  and 
none  was  excluded  from  joining  in  the  doing 
of  it. 


72      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

Why,  asked  the  ancient  rabbis,  was  the 
Torah  given  in  the  wilderness?  It  was 
given  pubhcly  and  on  common  ground — 
in  the  wilderness — for  the  reason  that  had 
it  been  given  in  the  land  of  Israel,  the  Jews 
might  have  asserted  that  the  other  peoples 
had  no  share  in  it:  therefore,  it  was  pro- 
claimed in  a  pubHc  place,  so  that  any  one 
who  wished  to  embrace  it  might  come  and 
do  so.  Nor,  added  the  rabbis,  was  the 
Torah  given  in  the  night  time,  or  in  silence, 
any  more  than  to  a  Hmited  nmnber :  On  the 
contrary,  the  Bible  relates  that  the  Torah 
was  proclaimed  in  the  day-time,  "when  it 
was  morning,"  and  all  the  people  saw  the 
thmiderings.  It  is  as  if  the  Lord  had  said. 
When  first  I  gave  the  Law  I  did  not  give 
it  in  a  place  of  thick  darkness,  nor  said  I  to 
the  children  of  Jacob,  To  you  have  I  given 
it  and  not  unto  others:  I  have  not  hmited 
it  to  a  few  I 

The  more  people  learn  the  truth  about 
Judaism,  the  more  they  realize  the  foohsh- 
ness  of  denying  its  universalistic  character. 
No  doubt  Unitarianism  has  attracted  and 
influenced  many  good  people.    Some  of  the 


NEED  JEWS  BECOME  UNITARIANS?     78 

most  noteworthy  figures  in  the  political  and 
literary  history  of  America  have  professed 
Unitarianism ;  but  who  can  possibly  com- 
pare its  scope  with  that  of  Judaism? 

But,  we  are  told,  Judaism  has  outlived  its 
usefulness.  A  great  and  influential  religion 
once  upon  a  time,  it  has  come  to  the  end  of 
its  task:  it  has  accomplished  its  work.  This 
may  sound  definitive ;  but  may  we  not  ques- 
tion the  correctness  of  such  an  assertion? 
Has  Judaism  really  finished  its  work?  Not 
if  we  judge  it  by  its  ideals  and  purposes. 

The  work  of  a  religion  is  like  that  of  an 
idealist.  It  is  not  done  until  the  ideal  has 
become  real.  That  is  the  only  test.  There 
is  no  other  test.  What  Christian  would 
aflirm  that  the  work  of  Jesus  has  been  done, 
simply  because  the  world  possesses  the  story 
of  his  life  and  his  teachings?  Or,  that 
Christianity  has  done  its  work,  because  it 
has  produced  such  men  as  St.  Francis  of 
Assisi  or  Leo  Tolstoy?  Is  it  fair,  then,  to 
say  that  Judaism's  work  was  accomplished 
when  it  produced  Jesus  of  Nazareth?  It  is 
by  its  ideals  that  we  must  judge  the  task  of 


74      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

Judaism.  Nor  will  its  task  be  done  until 
its  ideals  have  become  real  in  the  life  of 
mankind.  In  his  great  vision  of  the  celestial 
ladder,  with  the  angels  going  up  and  down 
between  heaven  and  earth — the  most  sug- 
gestive vision  of  religion  recorded  in  litera- 
ture— the  Patriarch  Jacob  hears  the  Lord 
saying,  "I  shall  not  leave  thee  until  I  have 
done  all  that  I  have  spoken  to  thee."  Nor 
will  the  Lord  let  go  of  the  Jew  until  all  that 
He  has  spoken  to  and  through  the  Jew  has 
been  done.  He  will  not  leave  the  Jew  go, 
no  matter  how  many  Jews  may  try  to  run 
away  from  their  task,  and  no  matter  how 
often  it  is  said  that  the  Jew's  work  is  done. 
Have,  then,  the  ideals  of  Judaism  been 
fulfilled?  Not  if  we  think  of  the  teach- 
ings of  Judaism,  on  the  one  hand,  and  of 
actual  conditions  in  the  world,  on  the  other. 
Judaism,  for  instance,  teaches  goodness, 
justice,  human  fellowship,  and  peace.  Its 
supreme  ideal  is  to  turn  the  world  into  a 
divine  dominion.  Are  these  the  things  we 
are  facing  today  round  about  us?  Judaism 
has  preached  and  even  predicted  the  Mesr 
sianic  age.    Has  the  Messianic  age  arrived, 


NEED  JEWS  BECOME  UNITARIANS?     75 

though  some  think  it  came  nineteen  hundred 
years  ago?  In  the  face  of  such  conditions, 
for  any  one  to  try  to  read  Judaism  out  of 
court  on  the  ground  that  it  had  accomplished 
its  work,  is  sheer  nonsense.  What  we  need 
is  to  realize  how  far  the  world  still  is  from 
having  absorbed  the  doctrines  and  fulfilled 
the  ideals  of  the  Jewish  religion,  and  to 
redouble  our  efforts — this,  rather  than  keep 
on  babbling  about  the  discharge  of  Judaism 
from  the  service  of  humanity. 

Still,  we  are  informed,  Judaism  suffers 
because  it  does  not  accept  Jesus.  In  this 
regard,  at  least,  Unitarianism  is  supposed 
to  be  superior.  Jesus,  we  are  reminded,  is 
the  leading  religious  teacher  of  the  world. 
He  was  a  Jew,  and  yet  the  Jews  do  not 
accept  him,  while  Unitarianism  does. 

But  in  this  regard,  also,  Judaism  is  rather 
right  than  wrong.  It  is  inaccurate  to  main- 
tain that  in  the  Unitarian  sense  Jews  do  not 
accept  Jesus.  For,  we  must  bear  in  mind, 
that  today  there  are  two  kinds  of  Jesus: 
there  is  the  Orthodox  Christian  Jesus  and 
there  is  the  Unitarian  Jesus  —  the  former 


76      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

associated  with  the  various  metaphysical 
notions  of  traditional  Christianity  and  the 
latter  merely  an  ethical  and  spiritual  leader. 
If,  however,  it  is  merely  a  question  of 
Jesus's  personality  and  ethical  teachings 
and  spiritual  idealism,  there  is  a  large  num- 
ber of  Jews  who  appreciate  him  as  whole- 
heartedly as  anybody  else. 

But  this  is  quite  another  matter  from 
what  the  Unitarians  would  have  us  do — 
even  the  most  liberal  of  them.  They  would 
have  us  accept  Jesus  as  the  supreme  and  sole 
leader — as  the  exclusive  religious  leader — 
and  this  the  intelligent  Jew  can  do  no 
more  than  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  could  do 
it.  When  Emerson  left  the  Unitarian  min- 
istry, one  reason  was  his  inability  to  accord 
such  preeminence  to  Jesus  as  Unitarianism 
demanded. 

Nor  can  we  accord  Jesus  such  exclusive 
preeminence.  On  the  contrary,  though  we 
recognize  his  uniqueness  and  grandeur,  we 
are  convinced  that  he  is  not  sufficient  to  all 
our  needs.  Jesus  himself  turned  to  the 
Prophets  of  Israel  for  light  on  the  pro- 
foundest  questions  of  life.     Could  we  do 


NEED  JEWS  BECOME  UNITARIANS?     77 

less?  There  is  many  a  question  agitating 
the  world  today  for  a  proper  solution  of 
which  we  need  the  Prophets  of  Israel,  with 
their  teachings  of  justice  and  righteousness 
and  mercy,  even  more  than  Jesus ;  and  there 
is  many  a  non-Jew  that  recognizes  it. 

It  is  significant  that  when  the  other  day 
one  of  the  leading  newspapers  of  New 
York  printed  a  symposium  on  the  meaning 
of  Christmas,  Mr.  Edgar  Lee  Masters,  the 
eminent  American  poet,  had  the  following 
to  say  in  regard  to  Jesus:  "If  your  mind 
was  highly  sensitive  but  wholly  strange  to 
Homer,  ^schylus,  and  the  Synoptic  Gos- 
pels, and  they  were  placed  before  you  for  an 
opinion,  what  story  would  you  say  was  the 
most  moving,  the  most  profound,  the  most 
significant,  the  most  beautiful?  Would  you 
not  say  that  the  Gospels  are  the  most  beau- 
tiful literature  in  the  world  and  the  most 
articulate  of  every  phase  of  the  soul's  experi- 
ence in  this  world?  But,"  he  added,  "sup- 
pose you  knew  after  reading  these  Gospels 
for  the  first  time  that  they  have  caused  more 
suffering  and  more  war  than  all  the  other 
things  put  together,  a  hundred  times  over. 


78      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

and  are  today  the  mainstay  of  this  terrible 
world  as  it  is,  —  what  would  you  say?  I 
would  say,  after  thinking  as  hard  as  I  could, 
that  so  far  as  the  world  has  now  gone,  it 
would  be  better  if  Jesus  had  never  been 
born." 

What  was  in  Mr.  Masters's  mind  was  that 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  had  not  proved  suffi- 
cient to  make  the  world  a  better  place,  nor 
is  it  enough  for  the  solution  of  the  problems 
confronting  us.  Why,  then,  shall  we  decry 
Judaism  because  it  does  not  share  the  Uni- 
tarian view  of  Jesus,  which,  by  the  way,  is 
neither  Christian  nor  Jewish? 

If,  however,  Unitarianism  is  in  no  wise 
superior  to  Judaism,  why  shall  any  Jew 
turn  to  it  in  preference  to  his  own  religion, 
with  all  its  heroic  history  and  manifold 
achievements?  If  for  no  other  reason  we 
should  prefer  our  own  rehgion  because  of 
the  great  history  that  it  has  had — because 
it  has  stood  the  test  of  many  ages  and  many 
lands,  compared  to  which  Unitarianism, 
with  no  matter  what  good  it  may  have  done, 
is  but  as  of  yesterday. 


NEED  JEWS  BECOMP  UNITARIANS?     79 

Let  us  think  of  the  magnificence  of 
Judaism's  history,  of  the  loftiness  of  its 
ideals,  and  of  the  universality  of  its  influ- 
ence, and  we  shall  see  reason  enough  for 
preferring  it  to  any  other  more  recent  or 
more  fashionable  faith. 


VII 

WHY  SHALL  JEWS  REMAIN 
JEWS? 

"Thou  hast  avouched  the  Lord  to  be  thy 
God — and  the  Lord  hath  avouched  thee 
to  be  His  own  treasure." — Deuteronomy 
26,  17-18. 

IT  is  not  seldom  one  hears  the  question 
asked  nowadays  why  Jews  shall  remain 
Jews. 
There  was  a  time  when  such  a  query 
would  have  seemed  inconceivable.  Jews 
used  to  regard  themselves  as  the  Chosen 
People,  and  it  was  held  a  privilege  as  well 
as  a  duty  for  a  Jew  to  be  a  Jew.  Jews  con- 
sidered themselves  everlastingly  committed 
— yes,  consecrated — to  Judaism.  To  be 
born  a  Jew  meant  to  remain  a  Jew.  It  was 
one  of  the  paramount  duties  and  permanent 
facts  of  life. 

At  present,  however,  this  is  not  so  uni- 
versally recognized.    Young  people  particu- 

81 


82      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

larly  want  to  be  convinced  that  there  are 
some  positive  reasons  for  adhering  to  the 
faith  of  their  forefathers.  They  refuse  to 
be  governed  by  the  past  alone.  The  mere 
fact  that  their  ancestors  were  Jews  is  not 
enough  for  them.  Nor  is  it  sufficient  to 
persuade  them  that  other  religions  are  not 
superior  to  Judaism.  All  this  is  negative. 
They  want  to  know  whether  there  are  any 
positive  reasons  why  a  Jew  should  remain 
a  Jew,  notwithstanding  the  difficulties  and 
inconveniences  connected  with  such  loyalty. 
None  can  deny  that  remaining  a  loyal 
Jew  is  bound  up  with  certain  difficulties. 
Even  in  this  country  of  freedom  and  equal- 
ity, the  Jew  has  to  suffer  from  certain  dis- 
criminations and  prejudices,  which  some 
of  us  feel  very  keenly.  For  example,  I 
have  often  heard  people  complain  of  the 
difficulties  they  encounter  in  placing  their 
children  at  desirable  schools.  It  is  certainly 
not  pleasant  to  have  one's  child  turned 
away  from  a  certain  school  simply  because 
he  is  a  Jew.  Nor  are  the  other  discrimina- 
tions practiced  against  Jews  agreeable.  It 
is  idle  to  play  the  supermundane  aristocrat 


WHY  SHALL  JEWS  REMAIN  JEWS?     83 

and  to  brush  these  facts  aside  as  nothing. 
Of  course,  compared  to  the  persecutions 
which  Jews  have  suffered  in  other  times  and 
which  they  still  endure  in  some  parts  of  the 
world,  what  we  encounter  in  America  is  of 
little  consequence.  Yet,  the  very  fact  that 
such  things  occur  even  in  this  land  dedicated 
to  liberty,  equality,  and  the  unhampered 
pursuit  of  happiness,  emphasizes  the  sacri- 
fice which  is  involved  in  remaining  a  Jew, 
and  it  is  responsible  for  the  defection  of  not 
a  few.  No  wonder,  we  hear  people  demand 
the  reasons  why,  quite  apart  from  con- 
siderations of  the  past,  Jews  should  remain 
Jews? 

Now,  I  believe,  the  fii'st  reason  is  one  of 
self-respect.  It  is  commonly  admitted  that 
the  root  of  man's  moral  and  spiritual  in- 
tegrity is  in  self-respect.  If  a  man  has  lost 
his  self-respect,  he  has  lost  the  chief  element 
of  character  and  contentment.  Nothing 
in  the  world  can  compensate  for  it.  For 
all  beauty  of  character  and  all  peace  of 
mind  come  from  within.  To  have  cast  away 
one's  self-respect,  therefore,  means  to  have 


84      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

destroyed  the  roots  from  which  true  charac- 
ter and  happiness  grow. 

It  is  impossible  for  a  Jew  to  tm-n  his  back 
upon  Judaism  without  forfeiting  in  a  meas- 
ure his  self-respect.  No  matter  how  much 
he  may  try  to  conceal  or  to  explain  it,  he  is 
conscious  in  his  heart  of  having  done  some- 
thing fundamentally  wrong,  and,  therefore, 
subversive  of  ethical  and  spiritual  integrity. 
He  might  be  content  if  he  were  convinced 
that  Judaism  really  is  the  inferior  and  ob- 
solete religion  it  sometimes  is  represented 
to  be.    But  that  he  knows  not  to  be  the  case. 

For,  after  all,  wherever  he  turns  he  finds 
indications  of  the  grandeur  and  the  beauty 
of  Judaism,  of  its  perfection  and  persis- 
tence. Everywhere  he  finds  traces  of  the 
tremendous  part  Judaism  has  played  in  the 
history  of  mankind.  Everywhere  he  en- 
counters tributes  to  Judaism  and  the  Jewish 
people  even  from  the  mouths  of  their  an- 
tagonists. Everywhere  he  finds  proof  of 
the  important  part  Judaism  still  plays  in 
the  expression  and  direction  of  human 
thought. 

If,    for   instance,   he   reads   Mr.   Austin 


WHY  SHALL  JEWS  REMAIN  JEWS?     85 

Harrison's  discussion  of  the  economic  strug- 
gle going  on  in  the  world  today,  he  finds 
it  presented  as  a  contest  between  two  an- 
tagonistic Jewish  ideals.  "The  world's 
message  is  Jewish,"  affirms  Mr.  Harrison, 
one  of  England's  foremost  publicists.  If 
it  is  "The  Emancipation  of  Massachusetts," 
by  Mr.  Brooke  Adams,  that  the  intelligent 
Jew  happens  to  read,  with  its  Preface  which 
has  caused  so  much  discussion,  what  does 
he  find?  That  though  the  author  presents 
a  preposterous  portrayal  of  Moses,  and  is 
guilty  of  some  supercilious  generalities 
about  the  Jews,  he  admits  that  Moses  was 
the  first  great  optimist  of  whom  any  record 
remains,  that  he  was  the  prototype  of  all 
those  who  have  followed,  that  the  moral 
principles  which  he  laid  down  have  been 
accepted  as  sound  from  that  day  to  this, 
and  are  still  written  up  in  our  churches  as 
a  standard  for  men  and  women,  however 
scantily  they  may  be  observed,  and  finally 
that  "the  great  Jewish  epic  always  has  had, 
and  always  must  have,  a  capital  influence 
on  human  thought." 

Everywhere,  I  say,  the  open-minded  Jew 


86      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

finds  traces  of  Jewish  influence  and  tributes 
to  the  genius  of  Judaism.  How,  then,  is 
it  possible  for  any  Jew  to  discard  Judaism, 
to  abandon  such  a  heritage,  without  losing 
his  self-respect?  Suppose  there  are  difficul- 
ties, hardships,  even  sacrifices.  So  much 
the  more  reason  for  chnging — for  remaining 
true  to  the  heroic  example  set  by  the  Jew 
throughout  the  ages.  And  if  a  man  is  will- 
ing to  do  the  thing  that  robs  him  of  self- 
respect,  how  can  he  expect  his  fellowmen 
to  have  any  respect  for  him?  There  are 
those  who  think  they  can  ingratiate  them- 
selves with  fashionable  non-Jews  by  con- 
cealing their  own  Jewish  identity,  or  by 
changing  their  original  names,  or  by  trans- 
forming their  native  noses,  or  by  behttling 
their  inherited  faith;  but  it  requires  Httle 
knowledge  of  the  world  to  know  in  what 
contempt  such  people  are  held  by  the  very 
people  with  whom  they  curry  favor.  Such 
renegades  may  be  exploited  by  their  pa- 
trons, they  may  be  flattered,  they  may  be 
even  tolerated  socially,  but  they  are  not 
trusted,  nor  admired.  They  certainly  do 
not  enjoy  true  contentment.     "Self-knowl- 


WHY  SHALL  JEWS  REMAIN  JEWS?     87 

edge,  self-reverence,  self-control,"  Tenny- 
son has  said,  "lead  man  to  sovereign  power." 
But  central  to  all  is  self-reverence,  self- 
respect.  Therefore,  one  may  well  affirm 
that  for  the  sake  of  their  own  self-respect 
Jews  should  remain  Jews. 

But  it  is  no  less  desirable  that  for  the 
good  of  the  world  Jews  should  remain  Jews. 
Because  Judaism  has  something  to  say  to 
the  world  at  present. 

Since  the  war  we  have  heard  a  great  deal 
about  a  new  social  order.  But  the  more  the 
subject  is  discussed,  the  more  people  must 
realize  that  a  new  order  cannot  be  brought 
about  by  political  and  economic  factors 
alone.  It  will  result  from  spiritual  forces. 
Even  those  that  discuss  the  present  situa- 
tion from  an  economic  or  political  point  of 
view  admit  it.  Economically  and  politically 
the  nations  have  gotten  themselves  into  a 
whirligig,  from  which  it  is  hard  to  see  just 
how  they  are  going  to  emerge.  The  only 
hope  for  civilization,  says  Mr.  John  Gals- 
worthy, lies  in  "a  change  of  the  directing 
mood."    Or,  as  Mr.  Meynard  Keynes  puts 


88      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

it,  "In  one  way  only  can  we  influence  the 
hidden  currents  (which  flow  continually  be- 
neath the  surface  of  political  history) — by 
setting  in  motion  those  forces  of  instruction 
and  inspiration  which  change  opinion." 
"The  assertion  of  truth,"  he  adds,  "the  un- 
veiling of  illusion,  the  dissipation  of  hate, 
the  enlargement  and  instruction  of  men's 
hearts  and  minds,  must  be  the  means."  The 
world's  future  depends  upon  the  setting  in 
motion  of  spiritual  forces.  "States,"  says 
Mr.  Galsworthy,  "must  reorganize  educa- 
tion spiritually — in  other  words,  must  intro- 
duce religion." 

Religion  will  play  a  part  in  the  making 
of  the  new  day  and  of  the  new  social  rela- 
tions. If  this  be  so,  there  is  no  religion  so 
competent  to  help  humanity  at  this  juncture 
as  Judaism.  And  this  for  the  simple  reason 
that  Judaism  has  always  taught  and  fought 
for  those  very  things  which  today  are  most 
needful  to  the  improvement  of  the  hu- 
man lot.  Judaism  has  always  championed 
Righteousness  as  the  governing  principle 
of  life — Righteousness   rather   than   force. 


WHY  SHALL  JEWS  REMAIN  JEWS?     89 

Judaism  has  stood  for  Reality  in  the  ap- 
praisal of  life,  rather  than  for  romantic  and 
self-indulgent  delusion — reality  in  the  sense 
of  viewing  and  valuing  things  as  they  are, 
rather  than  throwing  over  them  a  mantle  of 
pious  illusion,  reality  in  the  sense  of  seeing 
and  speaking  the  truth  about  men  and 
conditions,  however  disagi-eeable  the  truth 
might  be.  And  Judaism  has  preached  and 
demanded  Reform  as  a  means  to  happiness 
— Reform,  which  the  Prophets  sometimes 
called  Repentance  and  sometimes  Return, 
and  which  means  an  honest  recognition  of 
the  imperfection  of  human  life  and  of  social 
systems  and  an  earnest  effort  to  eradicate 
the  evil  and  to  improve.  These  have  been 
the  three  R's  of  Judaism:  Righteousness — 
Reahty — Reform.  And  these  are  the  three 
things  the  world  needs  today  to  be  taught 
by  Religion  and  to  translate  into  practice 
if  we  are  really  to  have  a  new  order  worthy 
of  the  ideals  and  the  sacrifices  of  the  war. 

Thus,  for  the  good  of  the  world  no  less 
than  for  our  own  sake,  we  should  remain 
Jews.  The  other  day  I  ran  across  a  recent 
study  of  the  Hebrews  by  a  Spanish  histo- 


90      THE    ADEQUACY    OF    JUDAISM 

rian.  In  his  concluding  sentence  this  author 
has  the  following  to  say;  "If  the  history  of 
the  wars  of  Israel  do  not  occupy  an  eminent 
place  in  the  world,  the  religious  doctrine 
founded  by  their  great  thinkers  has  placed 
the  Jews  for  ever  in  the  front  of  the  move- 
ment of  ideas  of  humanity.  This  is  their 
glory,  which  the  injustice  of  men  can  never 
destroy." 

The  religious  doctrine  of  Israel,  however, 
still  has  much  to  do  and  much  in  store  for 
mankind.  It  is  idle  to  say  that  the  doctrine 
of  the  Jew  can  be  taken  care  of  by  others. 
Even  Christian  scholars  now  acknowledge 
the  value  of  the  continued  existence  of  the 
Jewish  people  to  the  conservation  of  that 
religious  and  ethical  doctrine  which  the 
world  gained  from  the  Jew.  The  Jew  is 
the  appointed  custodian  and  apostle  of  this 
doctrine,  and  if  he  were  to  cease,  the  doc- 
trine itself  would  be  imperilled — its  purity 
and  persistence  might  be  lost. 

Let  us  think  of  the  grandeur  and  the 
glory  of  Judaism !  Let  us  think  of  its  value 
to  ourselves  and  to  the  rest  of  mankind! 


WHY  SHALL  JEWS  REMAIN  JEWS?     91 

Let  us  think  of  its  needfulness  to  the  men 
of  today,  and  we  shall  see  ample  reason 
why  Jews  should  remain  Jews — now  and 
forever ! 

"Instead  of  being  forsaken  and 
hated,  with  none  to  heed,  I  shall 
make  thee  the  pride  of  the  world, 
the  joy  of  all  generations." 


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